


For Sunrise and Sunset

by Tiara_of_Sapphires



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Animal Crossing Fusion, Angst, Canonical Character Death, F/F, F/M, First Meetings, Fluff, Grief/Mourning, Introspection, Panic Attacks, everyone is human though, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:13:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 24,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29346423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tiara_of_Sapphires/pseuds/Tiara_of_Sapphires
Summary: After her father dies, Byleth finds that he bequeathed her a piece of land on a distant island. She finds the house dilapidated and overrun with weeds, the people of the small town a mix of kind and suspicious of her. She goes to tie up loose ends, but ends up chasing out scorpions, wishing on stars, and finding something she didn't know she was looking for. Something about the place makes her want to stay a while.FE3H AUBang
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s), My Unit | Byleth/Seteth
Comments: 27
Kudos: 38
Collections: The Three Houses AU Bang





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (yeah yeah title is corny shut up)  
> My contribution to the AU Big Bang! Updates will be on Saturdays  
> A preemptive answer to a question that you may have: no, they are not animals in this universe. Everyone is human.  
> Enjoy!

To say that Byleth had a strange relationship to her father would be an understatement.

The man had raised her with all the comforts that a child ought to have, but never spoiled her. He kept her at a distance as she struggled her way through adulthood. He still sent her letters, asking her how she was, but always the surface level stuff. It worked well enough for them, since Byleth herself wasn’t the most open person in the world. She tried to get better with that as time went on, opening up to her friends at work as training for opening up to her father.

It was all well and good, until it wasn’t. Just as the relationship had budded, the ongoing illness that he had fought and hidden from her for years, a product of alcoholism and the harsh jobs he took throughout the years, leaving Byleth to watch as he quickly declined and died as she held his hand at the hospital.

Few attended the funeral, not even filling half of the chapel in the church Jeralt frequented. She didn’t know that he was a religious man until after he died. Figures.

She also didn’t know that he owned property on an island half the world away until she read through the will and the lawyer pressed an envelope with some keys into her hands. There was a house and a sizable chunk of land on the sparsely-populated island. There were no pictures of the house provided with the will, only numbers of acreage and square feet.

In her mind, it might as well not have existed.

It took another two days after meeting with the lawyer before she looked up the property and the island on the internet. There was very little to see, not even on Google Maps. Apparently, the island was so small that they didn’t bother to map out the streets. All she could find was a poorly-formatted website for what she could only assume was for tourism inquiries.

The pictures slapped on the otherwise plain home screen were promising. Garreg Mach, a land of sandy beaches and peach trees and rolling hills and gentle breezes. It sounded idyllic, something that seemed so oppositional to who Jeralt was as a person.

Byleth stared at the screen, squinting at the cheerfully-colored font. ‘ _Contact us!’_ , it said, providing a little text box for her to send a message to the site owner. She could just close the website and move on, but something compelled her to make some sort of contact.

_My father was Jeralt Eisner. He has property on your island and I would like to visit the land since the property was passed down to me. Would you be able to provide me information on how to visit? Thanks- Byleth Eisner_

She chewed on her cheek before hitting ‘Send’. It would likely end up nowhere, with no one actually checking their inbox. She was shouting into the void, knowing she wouldn’t get a response.

It only seemed right to at least try. Her bereavement leave was set to end and she was supposed to return to work the following day. It was a perfunctory thing, a thread to pull on that she would likely forget once her life ramped up again.

The grief and curiosity would eventually fade away, as all things did.

She returned to her sales job with a bouquet of flowers and a handmade card from her coworkers. It was a welcome gesture, but it still made her sad. Everyone was cheerful around her, almost painfully so, as if she would shatter like glass if they hinted at the elephant in the room.

Then, during her lunch, an email pinged on her phone.

_Hello Byleth,_

_My name is Rhea Nabatea. I am the head of the tourism council and mayor of Garreg Mach._

Byleth raised a brow. This Rhea person must not have many things to do if she is able to answer the inquiries from their website in such a short amount of time.

_I am so sorry to hear about Jeralt’s passing. He was a fixture in our little town whenever he visited us and he will be missed. Please allow me to extend my heartfelt condolences to you._

Jeralt had never mentioned the island property, but he was gone often, so she wasn’t too surprised that he would be taking trips to this property and not telling her. He must have spent a lot of time there.

She tried not to feel the sting in the fact that Jeralt had never brought her to visit or even mention it.

_Let me know if and when you plan to come to our little island home and I will arrange a private plane to take you from Brigid airport (it is the closest main airport to the island)._

Byleth responded with her in thanks, letting Rhea know that she will consider the offer.

“Thinking about something?”

Her head snapped up and watched Claude slide into the chair across from her.

Byleth sighed. “My father has some island property on this island called Garreg Mach. Apparently, it’s pretty remote, but there is a town on the island with people and all that.”

Claude set his chin on his fist with a thoughtful expression. “Sounds like a place where you go to get murdered or recruited into a cult. Or both.”

She blinked at his serious expression before he broke out into a grin.

“Just kidding, By. Are you thinking about visiting?”

There was a tiny airport, a town center, and city hall. There were less than 20 houses in the whole of the island, the rest of the land very rugged and rural.

“I’m considering it,” Byleth answered slowly. “I would just need a ticket to Brigid and they would arrange a charter plane to get me to Garreg Mach.”

Claude raised a disbelieving brow. “They would charter you a plane? Sounds like they’re desperate for visitors.”

Byleth grunted, looking down at her fish sandwich that suddenly didn’t look so appetizing anymore. “Everything is laid out for me, but I’m not sure what to do.”

“Strange, because you always seem to know what you’re doing.”

“Maybe my father dying has knocked me off my path,” she said, stubbornly ignoring the way her voice hitched over the word 'father'.

Claude smiled sympathetically. “Well, I know if you asked Edelgard or Dimitri, they would be practically pushing you out the door, maybe even pack your bags for you.” He held up his hands in surrender. “Now, I wouldn’t argue with them. If you think it’s right for you to go, you should go.”

Byleth nodded, still unsure, and gave a small smile when Claude nudged her shoulder.

“Get me a souvenir if you do end up going. My apartment is drab and dreary and Dimitri has started complaining. Maybe a little palm tree?”

* * *

Whether it was out of a strange sense of grief or a sudden realization of her own mortality, she submitted all of her accumulated vacation time to her boss, who was not happy about it at all, and booked a flight to the island. Or, well, she booked her flight to Brigid, letting Rhea know when she was expected to land at the airport.

Rhea’s excitement of nearly palpable in her email response. The resident pilot named Gilbert would meet her at the airport and fly her over to Garreg Mach on a private plane.

Rhea had told her everything that she needed to know about visiting the island. It was usually mild and sunny with a strong ocean breeze, so she didn’t need to pack many heavy clothes. She figured that her sweatshirt and sweatpants would be fine when night fell and the temperatures dropped. Toiletries, her phone, her laptop if she wanted to try to entertain herself while at the house. She didn’t think to ask if there was internet or cable at the house, but could safely assume that there was at least electricity and running water.

If she was walking into a decrepit shack in the middle of nowhere, she was going to dig up her father’s corpse and punch it.

She got on the plane with her suitcase and backpack, feeling strangely disconnected from the families and businesspeople who surrounded her on the flight to Brigid. There was likely at least one person who was on this flight for bereavement; she wasn’t sure if she would count. Her father’s funeral had long passed and he was buried in the earth next to the mother Byleth barely knew. This was just another facet of her dealing with this.

One and a half cheesy movies later, Byleth snapped out of her daze when the plane descended to Brigid.

She deplaned, feeling strangely electrified. Maybe it was the lack of sleep. The next part was finding the pilot who was to take her to Garreg Mach.

As soon as she stepped out of the terminal, there was a host of people waiting for their loved ones. Her eyes scanned over the crowd, looking for a sign with her name on it. That was how that worked, right? It wasn’t like Rhea had given her a description of the pilot.

Finally, she found a redheaded man carrying a sign with her name on it. His bland expression threw her off for a moment, since it didn’t look like he was actively searching for anyone.

“Gilbert?” she called out tentatively.

He stared at her. “Ah, you’re Jeralt Eisner’s kid?”

Byleth nodded shortly, refusing to wince at her father’s name.

He grunted. “Well, you’re our only passenger. Let me get your bags and we’ll head off.”

Byleth refused to let him carry her backpack, but gladly gave him her suitcase. Since she had little idea of what she was getting herself into, she packed for the gamut of weather that could possibly happen on that island.

She followed Gilbert through the airport, glad that she didn’t need to go through security again. He just led her out into the clear dawn air to a small jet. The oblong object tucked against the plane’s hull had her raising her brow.

“Is that a seaplane?” Byleth asked.

“Yes.”

“Are we going to be landing in the water?”

“Of course.”

Byleth’s heart sank a little in her chest as she boarded the plane. While it was unlikely that he was going to try to murder her mid-flight, she was grateful that she had some skill in self-defense. Self-defense wouldn’t help her much if she was dumped in the middle of the ocean, though.

It was a small plane with enough seats in the cabin to seat four comfortably. Byleth quickly located the puke bag and the lifejacket and helped herself to bottled water and pretzels.

Gilbert’s voice sounded from the cockpit. “This is the Soaring Windflower, taking off.”

Rhea had said that it was about 45 minutes from Brigid airport to Garreg Mach and Gilbert didn’t refute the estimation when Byleth asked. She wasn’t sure how much that was true, but she wanted off of that private plane as quickly as possible.

Byleth kept an iron grip on the hand rests as Gilbert took off and made it to cruising altitude. She couldn’t even think about listening to music during the flight. She was just waiting for the inevitable turbulence or something else to go horribly wrong.

If this was Jeralt’s way of getting back at her for being a rebellious little shit as a teenager, it was definitely an elaborate plan.

45 long minutes passed before the seatbelt sign dinged on and Gilbert’s voice droned clinically over the speaker. “This is your captain. We’re almost to Garreg Mach, so please prepare for landing by returning your seat to an upright position and fasten your seatbelt.”

She followed the instructions and peered out the window next to her seat.

“Local time is 8:40 AM,” Gilbert continued as if reading off of a script. “We’ve got clear skies and the temperature is comfortable.”

As the plane made its descent, Byleth could finally see the island come into view. It really was beautiful. She could count the number of structures on her fingers and toes, but it all seemed very quaint.

“We’ll be making a water landing, but that's okay because this is a seaplane.”

“Shit,” she muttered.

The view disappeared as they got lower and lower. Byleth hissed as the plane hit the water, sending her bouncing in her seat.

She glared in the direction of the cockpit, as if she would lecture the man on his piloting skills. The plane towed around in the water for another 10 minutes before the engines shuddered to a stop. The plane itself didn’t stop but rocked gently in place as it floated on the ocean surface.

Byleth sagged in her chair as Gilbert stepped out into the cabin and fiddled with the plane door.

“We are ready to deplane, Miss Eisner,” he said as the door swung and hit something with a wooden _thunk_.

He stepped down, clearly not waiting for her.

Byleth grumbled to herself as she put on her backpack and dragged her suitcase out. She had to be careful, since the stairs were also moving as she walked down.

She stepped out and was met by cool morning air and a sharp off-shore breeze.

The pictures on the website didn’t do the place justice. The water was very clear and the shore was covered in white sand and dotted with coconut trees. Just off in the distance, she could see buildings, but they didn’t intrude on the natural beauty of the beach.

She could only imagine what it was like when the noontime sun beat down on the island, bringing a summertime warmth.

It truly was idyllic.

Gilbert loudly cleared his throat and regarded her blandly. “Please go inside the airport. My brother, Alois, will assist you now.”

“Oh. Thank you.”

She hauled her belongings up the wooden ramp into the airport.

The airport, while small, was very charming with elegant beach motifs painting on the walls. It also had some delusions of grandeur, if the piles of empty luggage carts and empty plastic seats were anything to go by.

“Ah, Miss Byleth! I am so glad to meet you!”

Byleth almost jumped at the loud greeting to her right. The brunet gentleman at the front rounded his desk with a sunny smile and shook her hand vigorously. She blinked in shock at his energy.

“My name is Alois! Your father told me so much about you.”

She tried not to be too bitter of the fact that Jeralt didn’t tell her about anyone or anything on this island.

His expression turned pensive as he looked her over. “Can’t say that I see the resemblance.”

She barely reacted. It was something that had been mentioned since she was little. Jeralt always insisted to those who asked that, no, she wasn’t adopted. As an adult, it was still grating to hear.

“I take after my mom,” Byleth replied flatly.

An awkward silence descended over them.

“I’m so sorry to hear he has passed,” Alois offered after clearing his throat. “I would say that we were good friends.”

Byleth grunted. She didn’t see him at the funeral or see any cards when he was in the hospital, so she wasn’t sure how much she could believe of that.

He cleared his throat again. “Well, the town center is a couple blocks down to the right. I’m surprised Rhea isn’t here to greet you here, but I’m sure you will see her there.”

Byleth smiled tightly before starting down the main road. While it was big enough to have two lanes for car traffic, it was empty and the condition implied lack of use. It didn’t look like it was in disrepair, which was at least some comfort.

She still kept to the sidewalk, where windflowers poked out from the grass and tickled her ankles as she passed. One particularly bright blue bloom caught her eye. She took the time to kneel down and take a picture of it, not feeling the least bit self-conscious about it.

A wooden sign with cheerful cursive writing declared 'Welcome to Garreg Mach', bracketed by large pine trees, came into view. She snapped a quick picture of that too.

The road turned to a T-shape, the town hall right at the crossing. To the left, the road was lined with squat buildings before turning a bend behind the trees, leading further into the island. To the right, the road turned into a cul-de-sac with an antique-looking building and trails leading towards the beach.

A pick-up truck sat in front of one of the buildings, stacked with lumber. The driver was nowhere to be seen.

She did see a pink-haired woman duck into one of the shops, but that was the only life she could see. While it was a Saturday and could only assume mostly everyone in town was sleeping in, it was still eerie to be in such a deserted place.

Byleth turned to the town hall. The porch in the front had a couple of chairs and tables, as if it was a place to lounge in the afternoons. She tried the front door and saw that it was unlocked.

“Hello? Miss Rhea?” Byleth called out as she pushed the door open and stepped inside.

She stepped into the entryway and to the front desk. It was covered in cheerful island-themed decorations and succulent plants and vaguely religious-looking iconography.

Before she could think to be impatient, the door in the back opened and a tall figure swept in, tall, with long pale-green hair.

“Ah, Miss Byleth!” the woman exclaimed. “I’m so glad to see you’ve gotten here safely. I’m Rhea.”

She had similar enthusiasm as Alois, if not with a maternal tinge to it. When they shook hands, Byleth was startled at how firm Rhea’s grip was.

“Thank you for helping me get out here with such short notice,” Byleth said.

Rhea shook her head with a smile. “Not at all, it is my pleasure to have you here. Have you seen the town yet?”

“I haven’t gotten a full look around, but it looks nice so far.”

“We are a small town. We have a little clothes boutique, a grocer, and a general store for all the necessary tools and odds and ends you will need to live here.”

That was reassuring, the sign that there was some life being lived on this island. She would need to meet more of the island’s residents to get more of an idea of if this place is just a tax shelter with a lot of frills or an actual home for people.

“Anyway,” Rhea continued, “The forecasts predict good weather for the entirety of your time here. When it storms, it really storms, unfortunately. The trees provide a good wind break, which is a blessing.”

“Clear skies, hopefully,” Byleth murmured.

“Goddess willing, yes. I would recommend getting an umbrella from the general store if you have the opportunity. Sometimes, we get some surprise showers.

“Speaking of showers, I had someone to come out to your property to fix the plumbing. Jeralt hadn’t been here in several months and I wanted to make sure that everything was prepared for your arrival.”

Byleth stiffened, a rebuke on the invasion of privacy jumping to the front of her mouth. Some strangers were in the house before she was? How many other people were privy to this part of her father’s life before she was?

She swallowed back any acrid words and smiled diplomatically. “Thank you, Miss Rhea.”

It was best to let it go, at least for now.

“Please, just Rhea. But, enough of me rambling on.”

The older woman took her elbow and lead her back out the front door to the porch.

“I’m sure you are looking forward to visiting the house,” Rhea said.

Byleth nodded wordlessly and gently pulled her elbow out of her grasp with a smile to show that she meant no offense.

“The house is just down this road,” Rhea said. “As I remember it, it has white walls and a blue roof. The houses nearby are clearly occupied so it’s hard to miss.”

She pointed to the right and then smiled apologetically. “You see, we have little need for cars. If you like, I can see if we can lend you a bicycle.”

Byleth glanced down at her shoes, grateful that she put on something a bit sturdier on the flight to the island.

“That won’t be necessary. I like walking.”

She stepped down before turning back to Rhea, who watched her with a serene smile.

“Is there anything else I should know?” Byleth asked.

Rhea hummed. “Well, though Seteth is not here to give morning announcements, I just wanted to let you know that we are expecting shooting stars tonight. It is quite a sight to see.”

Byleth nodded, wringing the handle of her suitcase. “Thank you, Rhea. I will go to the home, then.”

Ignoring how the older woman visibly brightened at the mention of ‘home’, Byleth turned and dragged her suitcase out of the building and onto the dirt road. It was a temporary home, if a home at all.

She wasn’t sure how much the property would sell for, anyway. If the lack of tourism and acres of undeveloped land was anything to go by, people likely wouldn’t be clamoring to buy it.

She passed by what she assumed was the towns supply store. Nooks and Crannies was an odd name for a shop, but she wasn’t one to judge.

Stacks of lumber of different shades lined the storefront. Byleth made note of it, since would need to stop by to get some firewood for the furnace, there was one. The morning was mild enough that she was sure she wasn’t going to need it just yet.

The shop was supposed to be open until 10pm, so she had plenty of time to fetch some before the night’s chill arrived.

The boutique, called Hilda’s, was right next door with a 9pm closing time. Byleth squinted through the window to see the pink-haired woman from earlier fluttering around, fixing displays, while another woman with blue hair sat in the back.

She continued on, until the town square was far behind her and long road began.

Just as described, the houses were few and far between with large yards. The pine forest loomed behind them as the wind break that Rhea had described. She kept going without lingering too long in front of any of the other properties, keeping in mind both the description Rhea gave and the house number that was in the will.

She passed over a bridge with the river rushing underneath it. Immediately catching her eye was a large, green-roofed house with an iron-wrought fence not a stone’s throw from the river’s edge. There was a large natural pond on the other side of the property, surrounded by a well-manicured patio and garden.

Clearly, whoever lived there liked the water so much that they weren’t satisfied with just the close access to the ocean. She was surprised there wasn’t a tall fountain just to top everything off.

Byleth wasn’t getting winded from the walk, but it was a lot longer than she anticipated. It figured that Jeralt would pick a house as far as possible from the town square. He hadn’t been the most sociable person in the world.

When she finally arrived at her father’s house, blue roof and all, it looked like nobody had set foot on the property in months. She didn’t want to analyze how that fact settled heavily like a stone in her stomach.

Weeds and shrubs had overrun the sizable yard surrounding the single-story house. Large trees dotted the rest of the property, full with ripe fruit. Peaches, Byleth guessed. The island’s website raved about the peaches grown on the island.

She took some pictures from the street, both of the house itself and the yard.

She walked up the stone walkway, noticing how there were cracks in the bricks with weeds poking out. All of the windows looked intact, so there was clearly no attempt to break in and steal whatever was still inside the house.

It took a few tries to unlock the front door.

Since learning about the property, she didn't know what to expect when actually walking in.

The open floor plan wasn’t quite a shock. A rather old-fashioned kitchen sat to the left with a gas stove and outdated appliances. The fridge had clearly been unplugged since the last time Jeralt had been there. There was a single couch and a coffee table in what was supposed to be the living area. An empty table sat pressed against the wall and Byleth could only assume that there was supposed to be a TV there.

No router to be seen, meaning no internet. While she had been anticipated it, she sighed. Her phone data would have to do. Her signal was pretty good, but she had to hope that one of the shops in town had free wi-fi.

There was a series of screens to block off what she guessed was the sleeping area and a single actual room in the upper left corner, more than likely the bathroom.

She opened up the windows, wincing at the layer of dust that covered the windowsills. Already, there was a list piling higher and higher of things she would need to clean or fix or replace. A cool breeze danced through the house, chasing away the stale, musty air.

She rounded the screen to see what the sleeping area was supposed to look like. It was just as barren as the rest of the house. There was an army cot, as well as a plain wooden armoire and a dresser. A radio sat on top of the dresser.

She never pictured Jeralt as being someone who would own an armoire. When she opened the creaky doors, she found it mostly empty: only a sleeping bag clipped by some hangers and moth-eaten work coat.

Mostly empty, until she saw something shifted in the shadows at the bottom corner of the armoire and the light from the windows glanced off of a shiny, glittering insect.

“Of course,” Byleth breathed as she watched it, frozen in place. “Why wouldn’t there be scorpions?”

As if it had heard her, the scorpion skittered out of the armoire, plopping down right at her feet. Byleth yelped, backing away as the creature seemed to change its mind from trying to sting her feet and raced underneath the dust-covered dresser next to the armoire. It disappeared into the shadows.

She didn’t dare try to look underneath the dresser to see if it was still there. She would deal with it later, much later.

The bottom three drawers were empty of clothes or anything living. She had been sure that she would find a mouse colony or something of the sort living in one of the drawers or cabinets in this house.

The top drawer had an organizer with almost all of the slots empty. One had some loose change, the other a couple pairs of rolled up stocks. In the upper corner, wedged up so Byleth almost missed it was a picture frame lying on its face.

Byleth sucked in a breath as she picked it up and turned it over. A young couple and a baby smiled back at her, sitting on a beach towel under a tree.

Her mother, dead before Byleth was old enough to really remember her. And now, her father was gone too. They all had been on the island before? Byleth had been here before?

Jeralt didn’t tell her anything about any kind of vacation to an island or that the house even existed. It wasn’t too surprising, since she was barely able to get him to talk about her mother in the first place. He wouldn’t have volunteered such information, but it made no sense to hide it from her. Even now, all signs of a child living there or another person had been erased from the house. There was the singular cot and barely-used furniture, seeming to bring together the picture of the house of a lonely widower.

It all seemed to take the air out of her chest, chasing away all of the adrenaline that had coursed through her veins.

Looking back at the lonely, vacuous house, she wondered why she was there. Why did she bother coming out to a place that would give her nothing but more things she didn’t know about her family? Why was she wasting all of this time and money to stay in such a place for almost two weeks?

She didn’t know where to begin. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to.

Instead of deciding, she rolled out the sleeping bag on top of the cot—after shaking it out to check for any more scorpions—and lay down on top of it. Tears dribbled down her face as she closed her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Angst!
> 
> Comments and kudos are appreciated! 
> 
> [I am also attempting to make my general twitter my writer twitter. Give me a follow there as well!](https://twitter.com/BlooRalts)  
> Cheers!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a late upload but yay :D
> 
> Enjoy!

When Byleth awoke, dusk light filtered through the small windows.

“Crap,” she whispered, mouth cotton-like.

She definitely napped longer than she anticipated and slept almost the entire day away. This wasn’t how she planned to spend her first day on the island.

She sat up and the picture frame slid from where it rested on her chest into her lap.

Looking it over again, she smiled. She wished that the events captured in the picture happened when she was older, at least old enough to remember any of it. It had to be something important enough that Jeralt had kept the picture all of these years, even if he never told her. Maybe the memories were too sweet and too painful for him to tell her.

After setting the picture on the dresser, Byleth pulled on a sweatshirt, drank some water from the faucet that she could only hope was treated, and walked back to the town square. Thankfully, there were streetlamps to light the way as the sun sunk further and further into the horizon.

The town square was still very lonely and empty, but lights spilled from storefronts, signaling some life was being lived around here.

Byleth lingered at the front of Nooks and Crannies, staring through the window at a cream-colored cat sleeping in one of the front displays, before pushing through the front door.

A bell chimed pleasantly and the blonde woman who looked like she was dozing at the front counter startled as if she wasn’t expecting anyone to come in. She stared at Byleth, wide-eyed and, for a moment, Byleth wasn’t sure if she had misread the sign posted at the door.

“I’m sorry, the sign says you’re open,” Byleth said, jabbing a thumb behind her.

Finally, the other woman seemed to come to her senses. “Ah, of course, of course, it’s just you’re a new face! Name’s Catherine and the dour one is my wife Shamir!”

A black-haired woman stepped from the back and rolled her eyes before waving. “Welcome,” she said dryly.

Byleth shuffled a little where she stood. “I’m Byleth. My father owns—owned—property here and I’m just here to visit.”

Catherine squinted at her. “It’s a small town, so I know everyone around here. Who’s your dad?”

Byleth cleared her throat. She should’ve just said that she recently bought a property and spare herself needing to bring up her father. “Ah, Jeralt. Jeralt Eisner.”

Catherine’s eyes widened in recognition. “Oh, Jeralt! He was a good guy, always did business with us. I’m sorry to hear that he had passed.”

Byleth nodded and forced a smile. “Thank you.”

“I hope your visit here has been good so far. Garreg Mach is the best place on earth, if you ask me!” Catherine said cheerfully.

“Well, I spent most of my time dodging scorpions,” Byleth replied. “I had no idea that there could be an infestation of scorpions.”

Catherine grinned at her, as if Byleth was missing some kind of joke. “Oh, would you be able to catch them the next time you see one? If you do, you can sell them to us.”

Byleth blinked at her. “Sell them? Why would you want to buy scorpions from me?”

“We have a contract with a bug enthusiast in Brigid. We catch bugs and he buys them from us for a pretty penny.”

She nodded, though she knew she was probably just going to sweep them out of the house whenever possible, if not just squishing them.

“I’m guessing Rhea has already told you everything about life around here?” Catherine asked.

Byleth glance down the length of the store, seeing various odds and ends. It was almost a thrift store as much as it was a general store.

“The basics, yes,” Byleth replied offhandedly. “If there’s anything I ought to know about, please let me know.”

Catherine’s face seemed to light up as Shamir breathed, “Here we go.”

The blonde woman gestured wildly. “Well, there are plenty of things to do on the island. We have a lot of fish in the ocean and rivers. No need for a fishing license or anything, but everyone understands to not go overboard.”

“Fishing sounds fun. I could try my hand at that,” Byleth allowed.

She knew how to prepare fish, but no idea on how to fish. She supposed she would have to look up how to fish before she made any attempt at it.

Catherine continued, “We have diving suits if you want to explore just off of the western coast. The water is pretty shallow so you can see all the cool critters that live down there.”

Byleth did bring a bathing suit, but never thought about going diving or anything like that.

“The oceans are safe to swim in, right?”

“Very safe!” Catherine said with a nod. “Just don’t swim out too far, obvious precautions and such. Don’t want to get caught in a rip current or attacked by a shark!”

Before Byleth could think to react to that, Shamir sighed and shooed Catherine away from the front counter. “Come on, you said you were going to fix the front display. Do that before you accidentally scare off the new resident.” Catherine didn’t look particularly offended before striding to the front of the store and unlocking the displays at the front.

“Where are you from?” Shamir asked, turning her focus back to Byleth.

“I live in the city of Fhirdiad in Faerghus.”

Shamir hummed and nodded, as if satisfied with the answer. Byleth wondered if she said she was from Enbarr if that would have gotten her a different reaction.

“What do you do?”

“I work in sales. Not particularly interesting,” Byleth sighed, “My coworkers are an eccentric bunch, which makes things not completely boring.”

Just about all of them agreed that she needed to get away from the city and cheered her on when she announced she was going to leave for a couple of weeks to take stock of her new situation. They insisted that she take pictures and bring back souvenirs.

She wouldn’t show them the pictures that she took of the house. It looked like such a disaster that they would probably feel sorry for her. Maybe, when she took some walks on the beach or on the hillsides, she could see if she had any photography chops to show off.

Claude would insist to see the house just to play real estate accessor and decide if it was worth keeping the property or selling it.

Her mind must have wandered off for a moment too long because Shamir pulled out a pad of paper and slapped it onto the counter.

“Well, I’m sure you didn’t wander into our shop for no reason. Is there anything in particular that you were looking for?” Shamir asked.

Right, she came here to actually get the tools to work on the house, not to discuss her life story and gain new hobbies.

“I’ll need an axe and shovel and work gloves and some firewood,” Byleth said before paused and biting her lip. “Put me down for a diving suit and fishing rod, I guess, but I will return for that later.”

Shamir nodded, scrawling down the list of items, before ducking into the back. Catherine jaunted back to the front counter and started tallying up the price.

“Going to be working on your property?” Catherine asked. “I haven’t passed by it recently, since our house is fairly close to the town center.”

“Yes. There’s a lot of work to be done.”

She was already exhausted at the thought of how much work she would need to do. Not just inside the house, where she would need to figure out how to revamp all of the outdated appliances and upgrade the spartan furniture, but also the overgrown trees and weeds that covered the property. Now that she thought about it, the exterior house and roof would need a fresh coat of paint.

“You look strong!” Catherine declared. “I’m sure you’ll get it done super quickly!”

Byleth glanced down at herself. She did keep herself in shape; she could chop down some trees if she needed to. That said, she didn't have much faith in her skills of making a yard or a house look nice. She never had the opportunity to tend to a yard, having lived in apartments for most of her life.

Shamir’s voice sounded from the back of the shop, “Got everything packaged up!”

Catherine grinned as the register dinged softly. “Total comes out to 8000 bells. Threw in a newcomer discount for you.”

It took a few moments to realize that Catherine didn’t give her a price in dollars. She had been operating under the assumption that everything was in dollars.

“Bells? Your currency is called bells?” Byleth breathed to herself.

That was something that Rhea definitely didn’t mention. She had come assuming that Garreg Mach was a territory of Faerghus, not a separate entity with its own currency. She squinted at the little poster on the counter with the conversion rate, glanced at her wallet and sighed.

“Do you take Visa?”

* * *

Shamir provided a wagon with her purchase with a stern warning to bring it back once she was done.

She was grateful for it, dragging it from the shop back to the house. Carrying all of that wood and tools would probably kill her. She dumped them at the front door and realized that she really hadn’t eaten anything aside from the peanuts on the plane ride over to the island. The grocer had already closed or would be closed by the time Byleth could walk back to the town square.

Under the dying sunlight, she caught eye of the peach tree near the front of the yard. Sighing and hoping she didn’t tread on anything unpleasant as she walked through the weeds, she walked up to it and plucked a peach from one of the low-hanging branches.

Byleth lightly squeezed it, finding it neither mealy or underripe. It was to be expected, since they were in the summer months, but it felt like it was left just for her to pick.

She ran it under hose water and bit into it, skin and all. The peach was sweet and juicy, better than anything she had ever bought in a grocery store. She ate two peaches down to the pits before she could think about it. The taste stirred some kind of memory, sweet and sad.

Maybe her parents fed her peaches when they visited, fresh from the trees.

She stepped back inside and started to clean the house.

One of shopkeepers—Byleth bet that it was Catherine—had thrown in a roll of paper towels with the rest of the supplies she had bought, so Byleth set to work with clearing the dust that had settled on just about everything in the house. Most of the appliances, upon closer inspection, were salvageable. The blender had some set-in gunk in the blades, so she quickly decided wasn’t worth saving.

Who needed a blender anyway?

When night had set in, Byleth was still wide awake and her nose and eyes itched from all the dust she had kicked up.

She stepped out into the night air after pulling on a sweatshirt and found hardly a chill to disturb her. She wasn’t going to complain about the mild evening, but her mind wandered to thoughts of what the winter or rainy season was like on the island.

She stared out towards the street. Even at night, the difference between her father’s property and the rest of the surrounding island was so stark. Right as the property ended, the sidewalks were carefully maintained and not cracked. The streetlights had strong florescence, where the lights that lined the walkway up to the front door were pathetically dim, if they worked at all. Even the fence facing the street had been painted, with the side facing the house was faded and dirty.

Byleth sighed and locked the front door behind her. After such a long nap earlier in the day, she wasn’t going to bet on getting to sleep any time soon. The morbid thought of getting mauled to death by a bear or taken by some forest spirit crossed her mind. Claude really did manage to still be with her despite being on the other side of the hemisphere.

She walked back down the road, not trusting whatever lay further up the street from where the house was. Exploring that would come another day.

Her mother and father must have walked down that same road, either carrying her or pushing her in a stroller. Maybe they had visited the island as a couple as well before Byleth was born. While she could always ask the neighbors, part of her didn’t want to rip open that band-aid so quickly. The thought of strangers knowing her parents better than she knew them made her throat feel tight and her stomach swooped.

Jeralt always talked about how much her mother liked flowers whenever she managed to get him to talk about her. There were no flowers to really be seen on the property, choked out by the weeds that plagued every possible inch. She would have to change that.

It really was a nice night, with hardly a cloud in the sky. The offshore breeze had little bite to it. Byleth stopped just as the bridge came into view when movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention.

In that well-manicured property close to the river, a young woman stood in the yard; features illuminated only by the houselights that shone behind her. Byleth stared for a bit longer before she realized that she should probably say something before the woman caught sight of her and accused her of creeping.

“Ah—excuse me?” Byleth called out from the sidewalk, just loud enough to catch her attention.

The woman startled for a bit before locking eyes with her. The woman, hair tied in long braids, squinted at her before her eyes widened in delight.

“Oh, I don’t believe we have met before! My name is Flayn!”

Byleth nodded in greeting, strangely heartened by the younger woman’s enthusiasm.

“I’m Byleth. I—my father’s house is just up the road.”

Flayn clapped her hands together and Byleth could just barely see the glint of her smile. “Oh, how wonderful! I’m glad to make your acquaintance.”

Byleth glanced up at the clear, star-filled sky and the blanket that covered the ground at Flayn’s feet.

“Are you looking at the stars?” Byleth asked.

“Oh, yes,” Flayn said. “I map out the stars for research purposes, but, since we have a meteor shower tonight, I am simply here to spectate. Would you like to join me?”

Byleth opened her mouth and instead of a refusal, she found herself agreeing. She rounded the fence to stand in the remarkably soft grass.

“I’ve lived in cities most of my life, so I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many stars in the sky in my life,” Byleth admitted.

“Well, you’re in for a treat!”

It was clear that Flayn was younger than Byleth, maybe high school age. Surely, there wasn’t an actual school on this island, was there? Was she homeschooled or relied on online classes? Were there any people her age around here?

Flayn gasped, pulling Byleth from her thoughts, as light streaked across the sky. She turned to Flayn, who shut her eyes and clasped her hands to her chest, as if in prayer.

“What are you doing?” Byleth asked.

The distant thought of her visiting an island occupied by a cult danced in her head.

Flayn grinned. “I’m making a wish. You’re supposed to do that when you see a shooting star.”

Byleth turned back, realizing that she probably shouldn’t be interrupting Flayn. “Oh.”

Another shooting star streaked across the sky.

Byleth clasped her hands, mimicking what Flayn was doing. She had taken the plunge, coming out here. She could allow herself to indulge in such a small pleasure like wishing on a shooting star.

_I wish that I will find happiness here._

She wasn’t sure why that was the first thing that came to mind. She supposed she could ask for money or a better apartment or a promotion at work when the next shooting stars come, but it seemed natural that it was the first wish she made.

“Do you live in this house by yourself?” Byleth asked.

“No, of course not!” Flayn exclaimed. “I live with my brother, who is probably stuck at his office in city hall or in the home office right now, working.”

Byleth arched a brow. “What does he do?”

Flayn rolled her eyes. “Too much, I would say. ‘Island administration,’ he calls it. Even his hobbies he makes into work. It’s exhausting to watch sometimes.”

Byleth nodded. She could relate; there was little about her life outside of her job. There were drinks after work, walks in the park and television marathons on the weekend, but that was it.

She glanced back up at the sky and wished that the park maintenance people near her apartment would do better with cleaning the duck poop that covered the sidewalks around the artificial pond, so she would be more apt to take walks on the weekends. She also wished that the pub near work would raise the price of tequila shots at least slightly deter her coworkers from getting hammered every Friday, making her the one to order cabs for all of them.

“Flayn, there you are.”

Byleth startled at the deep voice that sounded across the yard and turned to see a tall figure approach from the house.

He faltered as he got closer, clearing noticing that Flayn wasn’t alone. Under the barest light, Byleth could see his eyes squint at her in suspicion.

“Flayn, who is this?” he asked.

Before Byleth could even think to be defensive about the aggressive tone, Flayn leaned towards Byleth and stage-whispered, “Forgive my brother; he’s the overprotective sort.” She turned to the man while bouncing a little on the balls of her feet. “Brother, this is Byleth, a visitor to Garreg Mach. I asked her to join me. Byleth, this is Seteth.”

Byleth immediately took the cue and stuck out her hand. “Nice to meet you,” she said.

Seteth clasped her hand in his, shaking it shortly before letting go.

“Ah, you’re the visitor Rhea had told me about,” he said.

That took her aback. Her arrival had been a surprise to Catherine and Shamir, as well as Flayn. Why would he know about her?

“Rhea told you about me?” Byleth asked.

“Oh, yes. Rhea delegates most tasks to me, including affairs regarding tourism. She had me arrange your travel here. I should have been the one to greet you when you arrived, but Rhea insisted that she meet you herself.”

He sounded a bit miffed about that. He clearly took his job very seriously.

“Well, thank you for getting me here,” Byleth allowed. “It was a painless process.”

“Indeed.”

Flayn turned to Seteth with a smile. “Will you join us, brother? It’s such a nice night and you have been cooped up in there for hours.”

Seteth made a noise in the back of his throat and Byleth was sure that he was going to refuse and either duck back into the house or kick her off of the property.

“I shall stay.”

He turned to look up at the stars. He cut quite a silhouette, with a strong nose and stern features. A small part of her wished that there was just a little more light spilling from the house, so she could properly see him.

Byleth shook her head to herself before watching the stars dance across the sky.

Looking at such a wide-open sky made her feel small, but it was so beautiful and clear that she didn’t think to feel anxious. She smiled and felt the tension leave her shoulders.

She could almost imagine Jeralt smiling down at her from wherever he was. Maybe, this was his way of giving a gift she didn’t know that she needed. She would find out soon enough, if not by the end of her trip, whether or not this was a huge waste of time.

She glanced over to see Seteth staring at her. He quickly glanced away and up at the sky when he saw her looking.

* * *

When she left for the night, Flayn grabbed her hand and insisted that she come over soon. Her wide eyes were so endearing that Byleth found herself agreeing.

Seteth wished her good night with the same brusque tone he met her with, but she was sure that his expression was a bit softer than it was before.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :3 more characters are introduced to the party!
> 
> Comments and kudos are appreciated! 
> 
> [I am also attempting to make my general twitter my writer twitter. Give me a follow there as well!](https://twitter.com/BlooRalts)  
> Cheers!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoo! Next chapter! Thank you to all who commented and stuff so far <3
> 
> Enjoy!

The next morning, dozing a little after returning from stargazing, Byleth had some more peaches for breakfast before putting on those sturdy work gloves and sun hat and started weeding.

She really should have gotten a trowel when she was over at the market. Maybe she could pick one up once she went to retrieve the diving suit and fishing rod. She would also need to get some food from the grocer, too. While the peaches were definitely good, she would probably get sick of them if that was all she could eat for her time on the island. Thankfully, the refrigerator seemed to work. Maybe Rhea had someone come to tune it up when they were fixing the plumbing.

Byleth started with the stone path leading from the front fence to the front door. Weeds had poked up in the flimsy grouting. While distantly Byleth knew that she was going to likely have the path ripped out and redone entirely, it seemed like a good place to start.

It took almost an hour to finish and it barely made a visible difference. From there, she moved on to the weeds that covered the yard.

As Byleth worked, she realized that she should’ve also gotten a bin for all of the plant scraps that were starting to build up. Whether or not there was a trash service or a place to compost all of these weeds remained to be seen. The island didn’t look like a garbage-filled cesspool, so there had to be a way for them to get rid of their trash.

She sighed and pressed her hand to the small of her back to stretch. Her trip itinerary didn’t include so much stooping to the ground. Was there even a doctor on the island? If she threw her back out, was she just stuck with painkillers until her arranged departure date? That was another something she needed to look into, if she was going to be cutting down trees or wandering through grass that could be hiding holes waiting to be stepped in or roots to be tripped over. She wasn’t going to be limping around the island for the rest of her time there if she twisted her ankle or get shut down by getting bitten by something poisonous.

So far, only little beetles and ladybugs scurried around the ground as she disturbed the vegetation around them. Nothing obviously dangerous, but still, she was careful.

She would need to replace the weeds with flowers, to give the little bugs a home again. She could also plant some hedges to border along the property, adding some more greenery. Some of the trees would have to come down, if only to clear some space and also reduce the amount of fallen fruit that could invite unsavory creatures.

Did rats live on this island? She hadn’t found any evidence of rat nests anywhere in the house, but she didn’t know if things lived in the walls that were just waiting to appear and cause problems.

Goddess, there were just too many things to deal with. She needed to clean, she needed to make some kind of plan for the layout of the yard and the inside of the house. If she was going to keep the property, it would have to be at least a livable place. If she was going to sell it, it needed to be a place worth buying.

How many people were in the market of buying island properties anyway, aside from old people getting scammed by timeshare companies? An even better question would be why her father bought this property in the first place. It wasn’t like she could ask the man.

“Miss Eisner.”

Byleth startled from her thoughts and turned to the sound of the voice. She had been picking at the same weed for the past several minutes, uncaring of her surroundings.

She almost had to do a double-take. Standing on the sidewalk across from her was Seteth, carrying a plate covered in tin foil. She found herself at a loss for words, wondering how he knew where she lived, before she realized that there was only one main road and that he was bound to eventually find her.

“Good morning,” she finally said. Clearing her throat, she gently corrected him: “Please call me Byleth.”

Seteth nodded with a gentle smile. “Byleth. Good morning.”

He stared at her as she sat back onto her haunches and dusted off her gloves. While he had eventually relaxed to her presence the night before, Seteth seemed strangely nervous, as if approaching a strange animal for the first time. If very few people came to this island, it was likely he wasn’t used to talking to new people.

In the sunlight, she could finally get a better look of him. Seteth was definitely older than her, meaning that the age gap between him and Flayn must be pretty big. He had forest-green hair, a well-kempt beard, and a handsome, angular face.

“Is there something I can help you with?” she asked, finally breaking the silence.

He blinked at her, as if he had been deep in thought. “Flayn wanted me to bring these over to you.” He gestured with the covered plate in his hands. “She made peach turnovers as a welcoming gift. She would’ve been the one to deliver them, but she tends to sleep during the daytime.”

It was a kind gesture, for someone who initially met her with such hostility. While she was sure that Flayn had probably put him up to it, Byleth was glad that her aloof nature didn’t frighten either of them off.

She was clearly taking way too long of a time to respond, if the color rising on Seteth’s face was any indication. “O—oh. Thank you,” Byleth sputtered.

Seteth glanced down at the fence in front of him and back to her. “Ah, may I come in?”

Byleth stifled a wince at the sight of the mess that was her front yard.

“Sure. Be my guest.”

He rounded the gate to stand on dirty stone and uprooted weeds, seemingly very comfortable in the mess.

“Working hard, I see?” Seteth asked offhandedly.

Byleth nodded, yanking out the nearest dandelion as example. “There is a lot to work on.”

“Do you only eat peach-derived things on this island?” Byleth asked, twirling the dandelion flower in her hands. “Peach turnovers, peach cobbler, peach rings?”

It was a lame joke, but Byleth carried on with a strange awkward energy as she struggled to find anything natural to say or do. He smiled at that and she couldn’t help but be struck by how handsome he was.

“We do eat fish, lots of it. And we grow produce here, as well as importing other things from the mainland.”

Byleth couldn’t help but perk up a little at that. “Do you have a garden?” she asked, unabashed in her curiosity.

He nodded. “We have a flower garden and a vegetable garden. We also have some cherry and peach trees. Flayn wants to start growing apples, but I’ve found that the weather is inhospitable to apples.”

Byleth smiled, briefly distracted by the mental image of Seteth with a basket of vegetables on his hip. Seteth shifted a little where he stood and Byleth felt a tinge of regret of not having anywhere for him to sit.

“I would ask you if you would like to sit, but, there’s nowhere to sit except on the fence or the ground,” she sighed.

She looked him over, with his clean navy-blue slacks and white button-up, and imagined that he wouldn’t want to sully his clothes by sitting on the ground.

“I see you don’t have a lot of furniture,” he remarked, looking over the yard.

“Don’t have a lot of anything, period,” Byleth muttered. “It’s clear that my father left this place hardly habitable since the last time he was here.”

She stopped herself, stamping down the bitterness that she could feel welling inside of her. Her property was a joke compared to Seteth and Flayn’s.

“I’m afraid I never met Jeralt. I think the last time he visited was right before Flayn and I moved in. Rhea spoke highly of him.”

“Didn’t know Rhea or this island existed until after I read the will.”

Seteth gave her a sympathetic look. “I suppose it is a strange situation, to know so little.”

“It’s not all bad, I guess. I needed time away from Fhirdiad and my father dropped it into my lap from beyond the grave.”

She dusted off her hands and stood up.

“Well, I do need to go into town to pick up some more things from Catherine and Shamir’s shop. Maybe we can go fishing a little bit later, once I picked up a rod?”

Seteth handed her the covered plate with an eager nod.

“Of course. How about tomorrow morning? I don’t want to take you away from your work.”

His immediate consideration for her time made her smile. It was easy to forget how suspicious he was of her when they first met.

“It’s a plan then,” she agreed. “Give Flayn my thanks for the pastries. I will definitely enjoy them.”

Seteth left with a soft goodbye and she couldn’t help but watch him as he walked back down the road. She didn’t look away until he turned the bend and disappeared from view.

She stared at the plate in her hands before walking back inside and setting on the kitchen counter. While Byleth was touched by the gesture, she had to eat something that wasn’t peaches before she could enjoy the turnovers.

She shed her dirty clothes and set them by the wash basin. The house didn’t have a washing machine or dryer, so she was stuck with cleaning her clothes by hand and air-drying them. Definitely annoying, but she supposed it wouldn’t be economical to buy either appliances. She would likely change her tune by the end of her trip there when she had a small mountain of dirty clothes, but that was later-Byleth’s problem.

After pulling on jeans and a light jacket, she dragged the empty wagon down the road and back to Nooks and Crannies.

Catherine greeted her with a grin and the cat that slept in the window jumped down to rub at Byleth’s leg and meow loudly up at her.

“Aw, she likes you!” Catherine exclaimed.

Byleth knelt down to scritch the cat’s chin and the cat purred at the ministrations. “What’s her name?” Byleth asked.

“Thunderstrike. She’s a good kitty, isn’t she?”

Byleth made a kissy face at the cat.

“Yes, a very good cat.”

Thunderstrike purred and rubbed at her leg as Byleth stood up.

“I’m here to pick up the rod and diving suit,” she said. “If you have a trowel somewhere back there, I would like to get that as well.”

Catherine rummaged around, grabbing what she had set aside for Byleth and setting it on the wagon.

“Do you have a trash service?” Byleth asked. “I’m going to have a ton of torn up weeds and branches to get rid of.”

Catherine grinned. “I’ll have Rhea arrange a greens bin for you. We like composting here. It’s easier than shipping all that stuff to a dump on the mainland.”

“And less expensive, I’m guessing?”

“Definitely.”

As Byleth approached the counter, something caught her eye and she remembered the embarrassment of not having anywhere to sit outside at the house.

“How much for those two folding chairs?” she asked. Byleth pointed at the chairs that were stacked against the wall.

Catherine followed her gaze and shrugged. “Consider them free. We’ve been trying to make room in the inventory for our fall items,” she paused and rubbed the back of her neck. “Also, uh, you’ve been our best customer in months. We only sell tools when people break theirs and that only happens so often.”

“Worried about losing business?” Byleth asked, tilting her head in confusion.

The thought of an empty storefront made her sad. A town as small as this likely couldn’t afford this place to disappear.

“Nothing like that,” Catherine said, waving her hand. “We’re set even if we only sell to the same residents for the rest of our lives, but it’s a morale boost. Just…don’t tell Shamir.”

Catherine winked conspiratorially before setting the two chairs in the wagon and ringing her up for the rest of the purchases.

Byleth made a beeline to the grocer right after.

She picked up some tea, cookies, and some jerky. In one the fridges were homemade salads in cute biodegradable packages. Byleth picked up two of them. The blonde shopkeeper paid little attention to her as she snapped at the red-headed butcher who waxed poetic about culinary adventures around the world.

Before she was fully out the door, Byleth had crammed three cookies into her mouth. A fourth was halfway to her mouth before she paused, looking across the town square.

Byleth couldn’t help but think that she was hallucinating for a moment before she realized that there was, indeed, a vendor with his cart set under the shade of one of the nearby buildings. She had walked right by him without noticing.

Stamping down the rising feeling of awkwardness as the man tending the cart spotted her staring, she approached, dragging the wagon behind her.

“Hi, sorry, I walked right by you without seeing you earlier. That was awfully rude of me.”

The man tilted his head at her. “Think nothing of it. It looked like you were busy, Miss—?”

She smiled. “Byleth. First time on the island.”

“Dedue, miss,” he replied. “I’m glad to see that Rhea has managed to snag at least one tourist.”

He seemed really dry, but there definitely seemed to be some truth to that statement.

“Nice to meet you, Dedue. I see you have a lot of green stuff,” Byleth joked lamely.

Dedue stared blankly at her, but the corner of his mouth turned up. “I have flower seeds and some shrub starts. If you’re a beginner with agriculture, I do have a complementary pamphlet, if you would like.”

He rummaged around in one of the drawers in his cart before pulling out a trifold pamphlet. Byleth accepted it readily, thankful that she wouldn’t have to scour the internet for tips on gardening.

“I didn’t see you here the first day I was here. Are you only on the island a few days a week?” Byleth asked.

Dedue nodded. “I come around here two days out of the week, the rest I have my shop at home with wife.”

He pointed at a picture taped to the cart and she leaned in to see a blonde woman smiling as she sat in a lush flower garden. It made Byleth smile.

“How do you get over here?” Byleth asked. “Does Gilbert fly you over?”

Dedue scoffed under his breath, as if she had made a joke. “I have a boat. Duscur is not too far from here, so I just sail over with my cart.”

He adjusted the line of shrub starts on one the cart’s shelves with a delicacy that made it as if he was dealing with fine porcelain.

“Everyone here seems to have an appreciation for botany, not unlike Duscur. They like to rotate their shrubs and flowers to what is in season. My sales are always good.”

She could imagine why Rhea would want him around, if he assisted in keeping the island in a beautiful state. The shrubs and potted plants were all well-tended in the public spaces, most likely his work.

“Well, my garden is rather sad-looking and in need of improvement,” Byleth said, eying the bright colors that covered the cart. “I’m glad I ran into you.”

Dedue smiled and started going down the line of different flowers he had in stock.

In the end, she grabbed a handful of windflower seeds and some starts for camellia shrubs. Dedue warned her that the camellias wouldn’t fully bloom for several months, as they were out of season. Byleth didn’t care. The naked shrubs would be enough and there was something about the anticipation of flowers that tempted her to pick those instead of the more in-season varieties.

The seeds she tucked in her pocket and she lined up the starts in her wagon as best she could without crushing them amongst all of the other stuff she had bought from Catherine and Shamir’s shop.

Dedue convinced her to buy a bag of fertilizer as well, which the fishing rod and diving suit were precariously perched on.

Distantly, Byleth thought about how much money she was spending on this trip. It wasn’t as if she was a big spender when she was back home or had to adhere to a strict budget, but she could imagine her future self, cringing at her credit card bill.

When she returned to the house, she started on the shrubs. Well, first she had to clear up the ground next to the fence where she was going to plant the shrubs. That took more time than she would have liked. After the area was cleared, she took her shovel and started digging holes.

Three feet apart, Dedue had said. It looked kind of goofy with all of the empty space between them. Over time, they would grow. Byleth cleared out more of the weeds and uprooted some scraggly-looking bushes that took up space in the backyard.

She worked until there wasn’t enough light for her to work in.

Looking at the half-full bag of fertilizer and the small collection of tools, she realized that she would eventually need to get a shed to store it all, yet another thing to add to her to-do list.

In the meantime, she piled them all up next to the front door.

Byleth scarfed down the other salad from the grocer before leaving her clothes in a heap on the ground and wandering to the bathroom. The house’s shower thankfully had hot water and she almost fell asleep standing up in the stream.

When she flopped down onto the cot for the night, she quickly fell to a dreamless sleep.

* * *

* * *

Seteth was at the fence right at 10 o’clock, tackle box and tote bag in one hand, fishing rod in the other. He even had a bucket hat with a silly rejoinder about fishing stitched on the front, which made him look both cute and dorky at the same time.

Byleth adjusted her sunhat to hide the goofy grin on her face. She had been up for a couple of hours, dumping all of the unrooted weeds into the greens bin that had been dropped off at the porch while she was sleeping.

“I see you’ve done some work!” he exclaimed. “Are those shrubs?”

“Camellias, yes.”

Seteth nodded. “Excellent choice. I had neglected to tell you that our botany extraordinaire would be found in the town square periodically, but I’m glad you made his acquaintance.”

“He was nice.”

She locked the door behind her and fetched her own rod. She tried not to laugh when she saw that Seteth was wearing flip-flops.

“So, where are we fishing?” she asked. “The river?”

There was an almost mischievous light in his eye as he answered. “I was hoping to show you some ocean fishing.”

They walked towards town, but turned away from the airport once they reached the town center. She could only assume that a seaplane towing itself around would only frighten off the fish in the area.

From there, it was a quick walk to the shoreline, where palm trees dotted the white sand. There were some buckets sat overturned in the sand and some beaten-up beach chairs, all in the shade of a particularly large palm tree.

“I’m guessing this is the most popular spot,” Byleth said.

It was deserted, but there were only so many people in the town. How many decent fishing spots could there possibly be?

Byleth drew her foot through the sand as Seteth grabbed a bucket and walked to the edge of the water.

He dragged the bucket along the surface of the water, filling it up, before walking out of the waves’ reach and setting it down.

“For our catches,” Seteth said, when he saw the confused look on her face.

 _Our._ She almost laughed at that. Byleth wasn’t too confident that she would be able to catch anything. If anything, Seteth would be the one catching anything

She had fished a few times as a child, since Jeralt’s idea of a vacation was always something camping or outdoorsy. Never did it cross his mind that maybe she wanted to go to a theme park or aquarium instead.

Either way, she didn’t remember how to fish, didn’t think to look at any videos on how to fish in preparation, and had to watch closely as Seteth threaded the fishing line up through the top of the rod, tie a lure at the end of the line, and place some bait on the hook.

She tried to focus on what his hands were actually doing, not on…just his hands.

Seteth helped her with preparing her own rod. His fingers would brush hers periodically as he corrected her knot-tying.

“Ready to cast?” he asked.

She jutted her chin out at him. “You first.”

He shrugged before casting the line, sending it quite far from shore. She mimicked his form, but clearly failed in execution, as the lure landed not nearly as far as his.

They stuck their rods into the sand and took seats in the beach chairs.

“And now we wait,” Seteth said.

Byleth took out her phone and took a couple pictures of the rods sticking out of the sand. A couple of puffy clouds floated along the sky and she took a picture of them as well.

“I take it you are liking the island so far?” Seteth asked as set her phone down. At least, he didn’t make a comment about the selfie she had just taken.

“It’s nice.”

The compliment felt flat, but she didn’t want to give voice to the strange mix of nostalgia and grief that seemed to chase her.

Silence stretched on and Byleth couldn’t help but worry that he was offended that he didn’t have more to say about the island that was apparently under his management.

“I definitely wasn’t expecting a bustling metropolis,” she offered. “It’s small and quaint.”

Seteth leaned back in his chair with a sigh. “More unkind people would call us a backwater. We have the necessities and enough connections to the mainland to make things habitable and comfortable. We are lucky, in that regard.”

“I can appreciate there isn’t a bunch of crap floating in the water,” she commented, looking out to the ocean.

His lip curled at that. “There would be storms where suddenly the beaches were filled with garbage. Last time, it took weeks for us to clean up. Had to hire machinery from Duscur to help clean up.”

“That’s terrible,” she murmured.

“We aren’t a big tourist destination, so nobody really cares, unfortunately.”

The bitterness in his tone made her heart sink a little. Byleth cleared her throat and turned her phone over onto its face in her hands.

“I was curious who helps when someone falls ill or gets injured around here. I assume you all don’t just cure everything with Tylenol, ginger ale, and prayer.”

Seteth laughed at that. “Dedue’s wife is our on-call doctor. She’s good and attentive. Thankfully, we haven’t had many incidents where we needed her to come over in storm or in the middle of the night. I have some limited first aid experience, but Rhea and our seamstress Marianne are more efficient in a pinch.”

She nodded, filing that bit of information away.

“Who paves the roads? Doesn’t seem like there’s a big need for cars around here.”

“Believe it or not, Alois and Gilbert are the ones in charge of that,” Seteth said. “In the early days, the roads were a disaster, but they got the hang of putting down tar and patching cracks.”

Any follow-up question was cut off by Seteth gasping and pointing at Byleth’s rod.

“You got something.”

Byleth jumped up from her chair and rushed over, picking up the rod from the sand. She reeled in the line, revealing the fish that dangled off of the line, flapping its tail. It was as long as her forearm, mottled green and brown.

“What is it?” she asked, unable to keep the disgust out of her voice.

Seteth grabbed the fishing line and held the fish up closely. “A sea bass. Looks big enough. You should keep it.”

Byleth shrugged before cutting the fishing line, leaving the remaining length in Seteth’s hand.

“Hold it up, so I can take a picture of it. Please,” Byleth said.

Seteth obeyed, holding the fish by the fishing line as she took out her phone and took some pictures. Everyone was going to believe that he was the one who caught it, not her, but she didn’t particularly care. He looked unfairly good with the ocean in the background. She almost wanted to crop out the fish in his hand.

He dumped the fish into the bucket.

“Well, congratulations. You have caught your first fish.”

She tied a new lure to the fishing line and put on more bait all by herself, feeling an exhilarating pride. She cast out the line again, still falling short of where Seteth’s one was.

They sat back down.

“So, you run stuff around here?” Byleth asked offhandedly. “Flayn made it sound that way, at least.”

He exhaled through his nose. “In a sense, yes. Rhea does plenty on her own, but there is a lot that is delegated to me.”

“Am I taking away from your work?” Byleth asked, surprise plain in his face.

She watched as the tips of his ears turned pink. “Not at all. I am able to carve out some time for something pleasant like this.”

She wasn’t sure if he meant fishing or talking with her. Logic pointed towards the former.

“I’m glad. I usually only find time to do something fun on the weekends back home. Jogs in the park, book-reading, photography.” She dug the tip of her shoe into the sand. “Now, I wish that my sales job would plant me somewhere like this, so I could have walks on the beach during my breaks.”

She looked over to him smiling at her. She couldn’t help but smile back.

Seteth commented. “I must admit, you don’t seem like someone who would be in sales.”

“How do you mean?” Byleth asked.

He shrugged, noncommittal. “I just think you would be doing something else.”

She was quick to tease: “Modeling?”

He jerked in his chair like she had poked him between the eyes. “No! I mean, yes, if you wanted to. You would be suited for it,” Seteth sputtered. Now his ears were red.

Byleth leaned back in her chair with a grin. “Well, I definitely appreciate that you think I would be a good model. Flattery like that would get you places.”

He didn’t try to disguise a pout. “Indeed.”

When Seteth’s lure bobbed frantically in the water, he reeled in the line with much more grace than Byleth had managed earlier.

He pulled out a fish that was about the same length as Byleth’s, only this one looked way more interesting.

She gasped. “Look at it! It’s bright red!” The scales glinted against the sun as she snapped some pictures. “I didn’t think fish could be this color, at least not around here.”

“You would be surprised,” Seteth said. “Red snappers are fairly common in these waters.”

It went into the bucket with the sea bass. He recast his line and they sat back down.

They continued for another hour or so. At one point, Byleth played some rock music out of her phone, just loud enough to be heard over the rush of the waves. Seteth made no comment, but hummed along occasionally to songs he clearly recognized.

No more fish found their lures, leaving them to the two fish they had caught. Byleth stared down at the bucket as Seteth lifted it from the sand. “You actually managed to find something pretty to look at. All I have is this ugly bass.”

“Those are good for eating, though. Red snappers are pretty, but I find the meat rather unpalatable,” Seteth said. “Of course, anything tastes good if you dump enough seasoning and lemon juice on it, so I will keep it for a meal later in the week.”

“Well, you can keep the sea bass if you like. I don't particularly want it,” she said with a wave.

He looked to her in surprise. “You don’t want to have it for yourself? It's a free meal.”

She shrugged. “I’m not brave enough to prepare my own fish. It'd be wasted on me.”

“Ah, still a bit of a city girl?”

The jab had little bite to it, but Byleth couldn’t help but pout. “I don’t want to risk getting fish guts all over me and spoiling my meal at the same time,” she sniffed. “I will get something from the market instead.”

She had seen some lovely-looking wrapped sandwiches that last time she was there. And besides, she was technically on vacation. If the rest of it was going to be work, her meals shouldn’t have to be.

They started back up the beach, Byleth carrying her rod and the tackle box.

“I’m rather good at preparing fish," Seteth mused. "I could show you how, if we return to my home.” He paused, eyes wide, as if he just realized what he was saying. “That was rather forward of me, wasn’t it?”

She didn’t quite look over at him before nodding, feeling her ears heat up at the idea. “I would say so, yes,” she replied. Goddess, she needed to pump the brakes on this before she actually ended up in his bed and potentially ruin this entire vacation if they didn't end up hitting it off. Screwing her new neighbor within days of meeting him was not her style, anyway.

“It’s a kind offer. Perhaps another time?” she said, immediately softening the rejection. The words were out of her mouth before she could check them.

Seteth hummed neutrally. They let the moment pass as they retraced their steps through the town, up the road, to pause in front of Seteth’s house.

“Thank you for taking me fishing. It was a good time,” she said.

He pushed the gate open with his hip to allow her in. She set the tacklebox on the porch, refusing to even entertain the implication that he could invite her inside.

“I’m glad to hear it. Thank you for the meal,” Seteth finally replied, gesturing with the bucket.

It seemed natural enough to part ways, before things got awkward again. She started back down the walkway before turning around.

“Seteth?”

He turned from where he leaned over the fishing supplies left on the porch with a question in his eyes and she swallowed back a sudden feeling of panic. She didn’t know why she made him stop walking, but she needed to say something.

She smiled with a shrug. “If you make a nice ceviche or something with those fish, you know where I am if you want to drop off a plate.”

He nodded, still looking endearingly goofy in his bucket hat, before retreating back into his house.

It took longer than what Byleth was willing to admit for her heartrate to go down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cute! Cute things!
> 
> Comments and kudos are appreciated! 
> 
> [I am also attempting to make my general twitter my writer twitter. Give me a follow there as well!](https://twitter.com/BlooRalts)  
> Cheers!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [WE HAVE ART FOR CHAPTER 3!!! SO CUTE GIVE THE ARTIST A FOLLOW!](https://twitter.com/morganaliART/status/1365310961691729923?s=20)  
> Thank you so much for the love so far! It's super appreciated! 
> 
> Enjoy!

The next day, Byleth didn’t feel a particular drive to immediately start working. Rationalizing that she would need to at least rest by herself at some point, she spent the morning sitting in the yard with her phone camera open, taking pictures of butterflies. She was never into bugs as a child like some of her classmates were. Now that she was older, she could learn to appreciate some of them. She would never get used to or appreciate the scorpions that likely lurked around her yard.

The weeds brought some smaller species to her own property, which she quickly exhausted in capturing on her phone.

She found bigger, prettier ones in the empty stretch of land next to her property. There were plenty of flowers, not restricted to manmade gardens, in a rainbow of colors. She had no idea if it was owned by someone, but she saw no ‘No Trespassers’ sign around, so she found a patch of assorted flowers and sat there, waiting.

When the initial disruption of her walking into the field had calmed, the butterflies and beetles returned. They skittered along the flowers and flew around her head.

After a few poor attempts, Byleth was able to get close-up pictures of the bugs while they sat on the flowers. Taking pictures mid-air was more difficult, with most of her pictures ending up as a canvas of blue sky with blurry smears of color where the camera wasn’t able to focus.

This was something she wouldn’t have been able to do in the parks back home. There weren’t enough flowers and things were just too dirty, too loud, too _public_. Here on the island, there was no one to disturb her and not a piece of litter to be seen. She would take advantage of it for as long as she could.

Byleth hadn’t been keeping track of the time, but at some point she suddenly became very aware of how her shirt stuck to her back and how soft the offshore breeze was. She wandered back to the house, put her phone to charge, and took a long shower.

She was beginning to see the appeal of this little island. If she just updated the house, she could almost see herself taking trips to visit.

The knock at the door almost scared her to death as she looked through the photos she had taken. She certainly wasn’t expecting visitors, but she had come to the conclusion that people were going to come to her home, invited or not.

She set her phone on the kitchen counter before opening the door to see a head of long green hair and a serene smile. Byleth blinked and almost physically recoiled from the doorframe in surprise.

“Oh. Miss Rhea. I—come in?” she sputtered, any witty greeting flying out of her head.

Rhea’s smile grew a little before nodding.

“Thank you. I apologize for visiting without prior notice, but I was in the area and wanted to see how you were doing.”

Unlikely, unless there was something past Byleth’s house that she didn't know about, but she wasn’t going to comment on it.

Byleth stepped aside to let Rhea in, suddenly very conscious of how her hair was still dripping wet, how she wore only a pair of shorts and a tank top, how the house wasn’t fit for visitors in any capacity. She watched as Rhea scanned the area, serene like a statue, giving nothing away, neither compliments or judgment.

She immediately regretted allowing her into the house. It felt like an intruder was stepping over a fresh grave, uncaring the mourning that had not quite been completed. Perhaps Rhea knew more about Jeralt than she let on, perhaps they were friendly, but for all Byleth knew, she knew nothing and it crawled under her skin in a way that she couldn’t put into words even if she tried.

“On second thought,” Byleth blurted out, “Maybe we can sit outside? The weather is nice and there’s actual places to sit.”

Though Rhea did arch a brow at the request, she retreated back to the porch, Byleth close behind. While the yard and the outside of the house was in just about the same embarrassing state as the inside of the house was, it felt at least a little less intimate and intrusive.

It was comical, how Rhea looked in her elegant dress, seated in a beach chair. She seemed perfectly at ease, as if she could sit on the sidewalk and still have a regal air about her. Add a glass of iced tea and a pair of sunglasses and the image would be perfect.

“I hope you are enjoying your time here,” Rhea said as a start.

Byleth nodded. People really seemed to like asking her that question, didn’t they? If Dedue’s comment was right, she was the first visitor in a while. Perhaps everyone was worried that she would end up hating Garreg Mach and never return.

“It’s a nice town. While a mess, the house is comfortable and in good repair. No drafts, even.”

Rhea hummed. “I suppose it is to be expected. Jeralt had built it himself.”

Byleth startled a little at the information. That little bit of information was omitted from mention in the will. “Really?”

“Oh, yes. Didn’t accept help from anyone, in fact. I believe this house is older than you, my dear.”

“I didn’t know. My dad was a hands-on kind of guy, but I never knew to this extent. You’d think he would mention an island house, huh?” Byleth mumbled.

“He didn’t tell you anything about the island?” Rhea asked. There was an almost sharp edge to the surprise in her voice and Byleth had to suppress a wince.

Byleth leaned back in her chair and looked up at the cobwebs that clung to the inside of the roof. “My dad didn’t tell me anything, about this house or you or any of it. I didn't know until after he had died that this place even existed.”

Things went quiet as Byleth watched a spindly spider crawl across the peeling wood. It went quiet for so long that for a moment she wasn’t sure if Rhea had evaporated and she had hallucinated the whole conversation.

Eventually, she turned back to see that Rhea was still in her chair, watching Byleth. Rhea’s expression had softened and Byleth wondered what she had done to earn such a gentle, albeit pitying, look from a near stranger.

“I see,” Rhea said with a knowing smile. “I know the feeling of confusion that comes with the loss of a parent. It gets easier over time, my dear. I can assure you of that.”

Byleth tried to match her smile and failed. It had barely been over a month. There was little comfort to be had in Rhea’s words.

“Well, it’s still pretty fresh for me, so I haven’t reached that stage yet, I guess.”

Hell, she was still processing the trauma of losing her mother as a toddler. It was a good thing that she had sought therapy to start dealing with that before her father became ill or she wasn’t sure how she would have been able to manage it. Not that Rhea needed to know about that.

“Miss Byleth, I hope that you know that your father loved you very much.”

Byleth was suddenly really glad that she didn’t have a glass in her hand, because she probably would have shattered it in that moment. What on earth would possess Rhea to think that Byleth wanted her to say something like that?

“I know,” she snapped. “I _know_ Dad loved me. You—you don’t need to tell me that.”

He had clung to her hand in the hospital bed, regretful that they didn't spend as much time together as they should have. Maybe he did think about this island home on his death bed, wishing that he had taken her there at least once before the end.

At least, Rhea seemed a bit chastised by her words. “My apologies for overstepping.”

With the mood thoroughly ruined, though the mood wasn’t exactly great to begin with, there was little else for them to do but sit in awkward silence before Rhea finally stood up from her chair.

“Have a good rest of your day, Miss Byleth. I shall see you around the island.”

Byleth watched her leave. Rhea smoothed out her dress with her perfectly-manicured hands after she stood up and didn’t turn back like she had expected, for which Byleth was grateful. There was something about Rhea that she couldn’t place. Perhaps she knew more about her family than she let on.

She shook her head, quickly banishing the thought from her mind. If Rhea knew anything, she likely would have said something, so it really didn't matter. She didn’t move from her seat, looking up paint choices for the exterior of the house. Perhaps, a nice light grey. The blue roof could stay, but it would just need a touch-up.

She shoved any feelings about her father and death deep down to be unpacked later, much later.

* * *

Rhea must have mentioned something to Seteth, because that night he was at her door with a thermos full of tea and two plastic mugs. Byleth was in a similar state to when Rhea had visited her, hair wet from yet another shower after hours working, this time in she was in a loose T-shirt and sweatpants.

She almost wanted to be spiteful and slam the door in his face. Instead, she sat on the porch with Seteth, sipping on tea that was so full of spices that it made her nose run. There weren’t shooting stars out, but the moon was bright.

“Did Rhea send you to see me?” Byleth asked, after the perfunctory musings of what they each had been doing throughout the day.

Seteth shook his head. “No. She mentioned that she had visited you, but I came by my own volition.”

She believed him. When she went to bed after he left, she didn’t feel quite as sad as she did before.

* * *

While not a green thumb by any stretch of the definition, the yard was looking better and better by the day, though Byleth held off on planting any of the seed packets sitting on her porch. She wasn’t going to go through the work of planting dozens of flowers only for them to all wilt and die because she wasn’t around to water them consistently.

“Take your time,” Dedue told her when she bemoaned the state of her yard.

He had gone through the logistics of flower and vegetable gardens, dismissing the idea of just covering the yard with grass and calling it a day. A waste of space, he called it.

“I only have so much time, though,” Byleth sighed.

Dedue, ever so patient, gave her his phone number so he could send her information on installing a sprinkler system and a list of contractors she could hire.

Byleth appreciated the nudge, warning Dedue that the moment she had sprinklers installed she would be bothering him a lot for more gardening supplies.

* * *

Close to the end of the week, Byleth found herself walking to Seteth’s house, not to see Seteth, but his sister. She had invited Flayn to a picnic after catching sight of the younger woman on one of her evening walks. Flayn had been setting up what Byleth could only assume was a telescope and had greeted Byleth with a happy smile and a not-too-subtle question of if she was there to see Seteth.

Flayn had been overjoyed at the invitation and even eagerly conspiratorial when Byleth mentioned that it would be a girl’s thing, just the two of them. She had also insisted that she be the one to pick the picnic spot and for Byleth to bring her fishing rod.

Byleth wasn’t an expert on picnics. She knew that the requirements were food, a basket, and a blanket. While simple enough, she definitely didn’t want to screw it up.

She bought a picnic basket and blanket from Catherine and Shamir. She also got two wrapped sandwiches, two packaged cakes, and a jug of juice from the grocer. Flayn was to bring plates, cups, and silverware, along with her own fishing rod and Seteth’s tacklebox.

She lugged her stuff down the street to see Flayn waiting outside of her house. Flayn had an overstuffed tote bag in one hand, a fishing rod in the other. Her face lit up as she watched Byleth approach.

“Good afternoon, Byleth!” Flayn said with a grin.

Already, Byleth felt underdressed in her jeans and sweatshirt, while Flayn wore a lacy sundress and sandals. Flayn, to her credit, didn’t notice or didn’t care.

Byleth nodded. “Good afternoon. I hope I haven’t been keeping you waiting.”

“Not at all, only a moment or two. My brother is in town, so he won’t be able to spoil our fun.”

Byleth laughed at Flayn’s desire to be away from her brother. If it was just the two of them in the house, it was might be a bit annoying to just have one’s brother for company. She followed Flayn into the grass at the edge of the property until they reached a large, gnarled tree next to the river.

“Here! The perfect spot, don’t you think?” Flayn chirped.

Byleth nodded, but she didn’t know what constituted as a good or bad picnic spot.

“Is this where you would normally have picnics?” she asked.

Flayn’s expression fell for a moment. “Well, not really. I happened across this place some time ago, but never had an opportunity to do anything about it. My brother is busy and our schedules generally don’t match anyway.”

Instead of responding, as if she had any idea of how to respond to that, Byleth spread the blanket out at the base of the tree and set the picnic basket down.

“I don’t know if you want to start eating now, but we should cast our fishing lines before we get too distracted.”

“Oh, yes! River fishing is a bit finicky, so I’m not expecting that we find too much, but it is fun to try!”

With that in mind, they prepared their fishing rods and cast them into one of the slower-moving parts of the river.

They sat down on the blanket, shaded from the sun.

“I got tuna sandwiches and these little cakes,” Byleth said as she unpacked the basket. “Hopefully that’s good.”

“That sounds great!”

Byleth handed her a sandwich and cake as Flayn poured two cups of juice.

“Thank the Goddess for good food and good company!” Flayn said as she handed Byleth a cup. “I must admit, I was really looking forward to this. I slept all the way through the night last night in preparation!”

Byleth blinked at her as she took a drink. “Oh, do you have a hard time sleeping at night?”

Flayn shook her head. “You see, most of my work is done in the nighttime, so I usually sleep in the day and work at night!”

That seemed to explain why Byleth never saw Flayn around during the daytime. She had just assumed that she was inside doing her studies, but apparently not. If her passion was the stars, it would make sense that she would be out when the stars were out.

“Ah! Before I forget!” Flayn turned in a rush to dig into her tote bag and pulled out a candle. “A citronella candle, to keep the yucky bugs away,” she said before lighting it.

Byleth wrinkled her nose as the first smell wafted over. It smelled like chemicals disguised as citrus fruit.

Flayn seemed to notice her faint disgust at the smell. “We have a ton of these things around the house, so I’m used to the smell at this point. My brother hates bugs. He can even find something to hate about butterflies and ladybugs.”

Byleth stifled a laugh, imaging the sight of him reacting to a scuttling scorpion.

“Well, what _does_ he like, then?”

Flayn arched a brow at the question and Byleth stuffed her mouth full of her sandwich to hide her sudden embarrassment. That was a really forward question that she really shouldn’t have asked. When Byleth didn’t try to backpedal, Flayn sighed, “He likes marine life, which I guess explains why he was okay with leaving Enbarr to live here. He likes art and prehistory too. He can go off on a tangent on just about anything.”

Byleth hummed and pretended to be focused in finishing her sandwich and unwrapping the cake that now looked a little less appetizing as the cream was melting from the heat.

“So, you used to live in Enbarr?” Byleth mused, “Did your family make an investment in the island or inherited the land? What brought you here?”

Even as she said it, it felt like an intrusive question. She had been curious as to how the residents of Garreg Mach had come to live here. It wasn’t exactly the

Flayn wrinkled her nose. “Not exactly. Rhea reached out to me and my brother a couple of years ago. We grew up largely alone, just the two of us, no real family to speak of. I was in school at the time and my brother was a curator for Enbarr’s Museum of Natural History.”

Byleth inwardly winced. She had thought that the two siblings were children of wealthy parents. They might as well have a mansion if it was just the two of them. If their case wasn’t like Byleth’s, how does a student and a museum curator come to live on a secluded island?

Flayn must have sensed her question when Flayn continued, “We’re like family: my brother, Rhea, and me. Distant cousins, at least that’s how my brother explained it to me.”

“I can see the family resemblance,” Byleth mused. “Green hair and all that. Did Rhea sell your brother the property then? When she reached out?”

“Something like that. We got the land and the house, though my brother made extensive remodels since we got it. And now, my brother works for Rhea and helps managing the island as a whole.”

Byleth nodded. “Seteth told me as much. He seems to do a good job.”

“The best, I think,” Flayn said, full of pride. “I honestly am not sure what Rhea does, but she seems to know people or be connected with people. She technically owns the island, you know?”

Byleth arched a brow at that revelation. “I didn’t know that. She’s a developer, then?”

“Yes, and her parents and their parents before them. She has properties around the world, but this particular one is the one that she chooses to live in.” Flayn patted the blanket for emphasis. “It’s inexplicable how some of the residents came to live on this island, but they are happy here. They have their own little place in the world to fly planes or create clothes or whatever their hearts desire.”

She didn’t say ‘we’. Everyone else could pursue their passions, but Flayn didn't seem willing to say that she was fulfilling her heart’s desire by living on the island.

“Do you like Garreg Mach, Flayn?” Byleth asked gently.

The sudden fear that she was asking too personal or too loaded a question was unfounded. Flayn didn’t hesitate before nodding. “You can see the stars better here than in any mainland city. It’s quiet and peaceful. The people who live here are kind and are willing to indulge me when I wander into their stores so close to closing.”

A quick pause and Flayn looked over her shoulder as if checking if someone was listening. Byleth followed her line of sight, in case someone had indeed materialized behind them while they were picnicking. “Despite that, I would like to leave this island one of these days. Maybe return to Enbarr or go somewhere like Fhirdiad or Sreng. I will just worry that my brother will get lonely if I leave. He’s a bit of a worrywart as well, so Goddess knows he would be calling me at all hours to make sure I was okay.”

Byleth poked at the remaining crumbs of her strawberry cake. It was sad if Seteth and Flayn really only had each other, but Flayn shouldn’t be stifled by fear of her brother’s emotions. That said, Byleth would want to see a course where both of them were happy. How could Seteth’s role on the island, where he was clearly indispensable, and Flayn’s desire to be free to do as she pleased be reconciled?

“You should do what you think it best for you,” Byleth said slowly. “Be smart about it, of course, but if your calling is off this island and at some university or research facility, then that is your calling.” She pointed at the sky and the sluggish clouds as if the stars were still visible. “You can only do so much from your front yard with a telescope and laptop.”

Silence fell as Flayn pursed her lips, looking pensive. Now, Byleth really regretted saying anything. The point of the picnic wasn’t to make Flayn reconsider her life path.

Byleth leaned over to pat Flayn’s shoulder. “I know that you will figure something out, Flayn. You will do great things and they’ll be naming planets after you.”

“Exoplanets,” Flayn corrected with a smile.

Byleth lifted her glass in mock-cheers. “Exoplanet Flayn, it is.”

“I’ll name something after you too. How about a star named Byleth? Oh, and a star named Seteth!”

Flayn rolled off of the blanket and onto the grass with a giggle, muttering something indistinct to herself.

“What are you doing?” Byleth asked.

Flayn shut her eyes and her smile didn’t falter. “I just like feeling the soft grass. I try to enjoy the outside whenever I can.”

She was quiet for a long time and Byleth became quickly distracted by her phone. Edelgard had sent her a picture of herself with Dimitri slumped over at his work desk in the background.

_-Can’t believe Claude is engaged to this dork…drooling all over his paperwork!_

Byleth stifled a laugh before looking over to Flayn. Her eyes were still closed, face relaxed.

“Flayn?”

The younger woman didn’t respond, chest rising and falling gently in sleep. Byleth sighed. Clearly, habits die hard, since she was not used to being awake at this hour.

She put away the leftover food and picnic blanket in the basket. She also extinguished the candle, not trusting it to not accidentally tip over and set a fire. With everything packed away, Byleth sat back down under the tree. Flayn had the right idea; it was nicer to sit in the grass than on a blanket.

This also wasn’t the worst place to have a nap. Just the sound of the river flowing was enough to lull Byleth to a lazy drowsiness. The fishing rods were very still where they sat at the river’s edge. Perhaps all the fish were taking naps just like Flayn.

Byleth must have dozed off herself because there was no way that the sun could have moved that far in the sky in that short amount of time.

She crawled over to Flayn, hissing softly at the pain in her tailbone, and shook her shoulder.

Flayn wrinkled her nose before blinking awake.

“Byleth? What time is it?”

She glanced at her phone. “About 4 in the afternoon. You nodded off for a little bit, as did I.”

Flayn blushed bright red. “I am so sorry! I guess my body clock is not used to being up at this hour. And I see you’ve already done most of the cleaning too.”

“It was no problem. But, let’s get out of here before we get eaten by mosquitoes.”

Byleth helped her to her feet before trudging back to the main road. Despite the food being eaten, their loads seemed a lot heavier in their sleepiness.

When they stopped in front of Flayn’s house, the younger woman turned to her with a dazzling smile.

“Thank you. I had a wonderful time.”

Byleth smiled back. “I’m glad. We should do this again sometime.”

Flayn waved as best she could with her fishing rod still in hand before turning and skipping to her front door. Byleth watched her and couldn’t help but wonder if she was going to recount the day with her brother. It wasn’t as if Byleth was seeking Seteth’s approval or permission to hang out with Flayn. It was nice to make a friend, no matter what.

Still, it would be nice to know if, for next time, he would like to join them.

* * *

The next evening, Flayn and Byleth went fishing and nearly got dragged into the ocean by an oarfish that they caught on their line.

They let it go, not before Byleth took some pictures of the creature thrashing around in the shallow water. They even managed to hoist it over their heads for a few seconds, wishing that someone was there to take a picture.

Seteth didn’t believe them when they told him what they did, even with the pictures of the fish in the water. Byleth and Flayn decided that it would just be their story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cute! <3
> 
> Comments and kudos are appreciated!
> 
> [I am also attempting to make my general twitter my writer twitter. Give me a follow there as well!](https://twitter.com/BlooRalts)  
> Cheers!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit late on the upload! Got distracted from binging Wandavision and making cupcakes.
> 
> Thank you to all who commented and supported this fic thus far!
> 
> Enjoy!

Slowly, Byleth felt herself getting used to her neighbors to the point that she might has well have lived in Garreg Mach for years instead of a few days.

Byleth would see Flayn when she took her evening walks, always looking up at the stars, often with a telescope and a laptop computer set up. She had no idea what kind of research Flayn was conducting and she couldn’t begin to comprehend it when Flayn attempted to explain it.

Byleth, for her part, was perfectly fine with staring at a blanket of stars without fully understanding it.

She would run into Seteth in the town square while doing errands or while on a walk. Even if he was clearly busy and in between one task or another, he would always would pause to smile and ask her how she was.

As the days passed, she slowly ticked off events in her mind, amassing memories and pictures in her phone. She had spent plenty of days working on the property. She fished and stargazed. She had tea with Seteth outside the grocer when they ran into each other while he was on break and she was on a supply run.

Dedue had returned and he nodded appreciatively at pictures of her work in the yard. He also managed to sell her another handful of shrub starts to line the outside of the house.

She had done plenty, except actually try the diving suit that she had paid a pretty penny for. It had spent all that time sitting on the coffee table, folded up the same way she had brought it from the general store days earlier. It looked like it would fit and what was an island vacation without swimming in the ocean at least once? Goddess knew Claude wouldn’t let her live it down if she didn’t at least try.

Swallowing back her nerves, she pulled the diving suit on and threw a sweatshirt over it. It felt no different than a bathing suit, really. She wanted to get into the water as soon as possible, since the insulation was making her overheat very quickly.

Catherine had said that the western side of the island was the best place to go diving. With that in mind, she slung a towel across her shoulders and stepped into the mid-morning sun.

On her way, she saw a truck full of lumber emerge from the forest, Gilbert at the driver’s seat. Byleth waved, but she wasn’t sure if he saw her.

She passed through town, waving into the store window in case Catherine or Shamir saw her. Past the airport, the main road winded up and down over a hill before rising again.

At the top, all Byleth could see were pristine beaches and rolling waves, not a soul to disturb her. Distantly thinking about how this would be the optimal place for her to die if she was in a horror movie, she trudged down the sandy hill to the beach below.

She set her towel, sweatshirt and phone in a pile on the sand. Clearly, this island didn’t have the infrastructure for a diving tour company or something of that sort. She supposed it was implied that she would have to do her diving and exploring herself.

Garreg Mach just had a lot of things against it, now that she really thought about it. It wasn’t quite big enough, not quite developed enough, to make it a destination for anyone. People were more likely to visit the beach cities in Brigid and Duscur than a tiny island sat between them. There weren’t the tourist attractions of sea tours, hotels, and diving lessons that other larger islands had the benefit of.

Byleth shrugged to herself. While she could think of plenty of sales pitches to get people to come to Garreg Mach, there were just too many things that would inherently cripple tourism.

She had her house and her plot of land and that was it. She didn’t need to try to save the place, if it even needed saving. For all she knew, this place was a tax shelter and Rhea was able to keep the place running from whatever cut she got for keeping the island under her name, or whatever.

The thought of everyone else on the island being either in on some kind of plot or blissfully unaware of it turned her stomach a little.

She donned on her goggles and hesitated near the shoreline. Well, there was little else to do but actually try to go diving.

“You know, you really should have a spotter if you’re diving for the first time!”

Byleth turned to see Seteth casually ambling down the beach in the same white shirt, dark pants, and loafers.

“Did you know I was here?” she asked.

He shook his head with a sheepish smile. “No, happened to take a walk, but I’m glad I caught you.”

Byleth looked down at the water’s edge and back up to him. It definitely was an out-of-the-way place for his walk to detour to. They both seemed to secretly acknowledge that he had followed her.

“Afraid I’ll end up drowning?” Byleth asked.

The question was meant to be a joke, a macabre one at that, but something dark and sad drifted across his face, like a cloud covering the sun. She didn’t know what kind of minefield she just stepped into, but the moment seemed to pass as quickly as it came.

“Something like that,” he replied primly.

Byleth shrugged, though the thought of his concern warmed her heart a little.

“Okay, fair enough. You can wait here and if I don’t come back up, you can rescue me.”

While the idea of drowning was distinctly unpleasant, the thought of Seteth carrying her out of the water like something out of a romance novel almost made her snort out loud.

She turned and stepped into the waves. The water beat at her legs, slowing her pace to a graceless slog until she got deep enough for feet to no longer touch the sandy floor. Byleth swam a little bit further out. The water was cool, not absolutely freezing like she had been dreading. Her diving suit did a good enough job with insulating her.

She stuck her face into the water, seeing the murkiness of the ocean floor and little else. It wasn’t too deep, just enough for there to be a challenge.

Lifting her face out of the water, she looked to the tall figure shifting in the sand. His features were too indistinct for her to tell if he was watching her or if he simply stared blankly at the ocean.

Mentally shrugging, she took in a few deep breaths before ducking down in the water. She managed to get down two feet into the water before she bobbed back up to the surface.

“Well, crap,” she muttered. She really should have done literally any research into how to go diving. She didn’t have the momentum from pushing off a boat or the weight of oxygen tanks on her back.

Seteth was probably laughing at her from where he watched her. She didn’t look back to see.

Byleth put in all the strength she could. She submerged and kicked down, once, twice, three times. Distantly, she thought about how she should have tied up her hair before getting into the water. The way her hair moved as she sank into the depths felt like something out of a movie.

She looked up and saw sunlight filtering through the water. It should have been pretty, even tranquil.

It was anything but that. A sudden feeling of dread crushed her, twisting her stomach into knots. The ocean was so big and she was so small. She was pathetically weak and small and could easily sink to the bottom and become food for the fish.

She was going to die. She was going to fucking _die_ in the middle of nowhere and no one was going to find her body. There were few people to miss her; with her family dead, it left only work-friends and acquaintances who wouldn't feel too sad for too long.

There would be no one left to mourn her father.

She surfaced with a gasp, eyes quickly finding the shoreline. Panic sang through her limbs, making each stroke as she swam towards shore choppy and inelegant. She needed to get out of the water, before this horrible feeling pulled her down into the depths.

“You okay?” Seteth called out. Worry was plain in his voice, as if he was mere moments of jumping into the water after her. She almost called out to him, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to disguise her own panic.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she gasped out, finally getting to waters where her feet touched the bottom. Safer, definitely safer. “I think that’s enough for this first time. Not much to see, anyway.”

She trudged out of the water, refusing to look over at Seteth, who was definitely staring at her with naked concern. She raked a hand through her hair, trying to comb it back into place. On cue, the sea breeze picked up and sent a chill running through her. As soon as she was out of reach of the waves, she sat down in the sand. Her heart still thundered in her chest.

The sand was warm as she dug her hands in, attempting to hide how they were shaking.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Seteth approach. She kept her eyes on the water and tried to get her breathing under control. Her hands inched for her phone, if just for something to do or to book the next flight back to Fhirdiad.

He lay a towel across her shoulders without a word.

Byleth swallowed loudly, the sound drowned out by the water. He didn't sit next to her, didn't say a word, but stood sentinel until she relearned how to stand.

* * *

Seteth had escorted her home after that with a strange gentlemanly air that she couldn’t decide was intimate or painfully distant.

Flayn stopped by that night to drop off a covered plate with some roasted sea bass and fingerling potatoes. She didn't stick around, which Byleth appreciated. She didn't want to have a real conversation with anyone. The food smelled delicious, tasted even better. It felt almost like a hug.

That night, her dreams were of her father wasting away in a hospital bed. He had refused hospice, which Byleth could barely bring herself to forgive him for. Those long, sad days, getting her little visitor badge at the hospital front desk and accepting covered casserole dishes from coworkers, left her feeling like she was drowning on air.

When she awoke, the sun not even peeking over the horizon yet, she felt strangely hollow.

When Byleth was younger, her father would get donuts for her after nights when she was up late studying, still needing to wake up early, or the morning before a stressful test. She would appreciate a donut and her father’s blasé ‘it’s nothing’ that he would always give whenever she thanked him for anything.

Instead of staying in bed, she donned on her warmest clothes, turned on the outdoor lights, and started weeding wherever she could actually see.

She weeded until the morning chill and exhaustion turned her limbs to lead and she wandered back inside to curl up on the cot. The thought to buy a mattress crossed her mind, but her tired brain couldn’t imagine the logistics of it. Lugging a mattress on a wagon was almost comical.

Byleth awoke to the mid-morning sun. Her hands and back cramped. If it was her body’s way of telling her to slow the hell down, she heard it loud and clear.

She spent an hour cataloguing everything that was in the house and made a list of everything that needed to be replaced and everything that needed to be bought to make a bit more modern and habitable.

A proper bed, to start. A couch and a dining table. It would take some work, but she wanted to rip out the tiny shower and replace it with a nice bathtub. While a distant part of her protested at the thought of making so many changes, the house was so devoid of Jeralt's personality that it might as well not have been his to begin with.

On a whim, Byleth decided to visit the boutique in town. Back home, Edelgard often bemoaned how her wife used retail therapy whenever she was stressed. It never had too much heat to it, since Edelgard always came into work with nice coats and shoes and pretty baubles in her hair, since whenever Dorothea bought something for herself, she tended to buy something for Edelgard.

While Byleth wasn’t going to go that far, as she had limited space in her suitcase and backpack for any new items, she would like to at least entertain the idea of getting something nice for herself. Her pseudo-vacation spending couldn’t all be about yard and house maintenance. She would never hear the end of it from her coworkers if she managed to make a vacation all about work.

A bell chimed when she entered the store, but somehow it was lighter and airier than the one at Nooks and Crannies. She didn't know how that would even be possible.

She couldn’t help but be taken in by the perfumed air and charming lighting. It seemed like a place that was plucked right out of a bustling tourist town, meticulous and attractive to possible customers.

A woman with pink hair in pigtails and a dress that looked like something that belonged on a runway immediately rushed to greet her. “Hey there, stranger! I’ve seen you around town and hoped that you would come in one day! My name’s Hilda.”

Byleth stifled a laugh. She named the store after herself? It made sense, since she seemed to have enough energy to run an entire store by herself.

“Byleth. Nice to meet you.”

They shook hands. Hilda’s hands were perfectly manicured, with nail polish that matched her hair and the rest of her outfit.

“And that lovely lady over there is my wife. Marianne, dear! We have a new customer!”

The blue-haired woman looked up from where she was tending to her sewing machine.

“Oh. Hello,” Marianne greeted, just loud enough to be heard. Her eyes immediately dropped back to the sewing machine, drawing fabric through the mechanism. Clearly, she wasn’t interested in conversation with Byleth.

Before Byleth could think to make a comment, Hilda patted her hand. “Don’t mind her,” she said. “She’s in the zone right now, trying to get a head’s start on the fall season. Fitted coats are going to be all the rage. I can tell.”

Byleth nodded wordlessly, as if she knew the latest fashion trends. She was spectacularly out of her depth. She just liked her comfy clothes and that was it.

“Will you help me find something? I was thinking of getting something…pretty. I’m sure you have the best eye,” Byleth murmured, eyes glazing over the scene of fabric.

Hilda gave her a once-over, as if taking measurements with her eyes.

“Of course! I’m sure I can find something perfect for you!”

Byleth watched as Hilda flounced over to a rack of clothes. She plucked one thing off of the rack, glanced over at it and put it back. She repeated this process over and over until she made a triumphant sound.

She revealed a sundress with a pale blue skirt covered in yellow flowers.

“Oh, it will match your hair and eyes so wonderfully! Try it on.”

Byleth let Hilda usher her into one of the dressing rooms.

Safely behind a curtain, Byleth shimmied out of her shorts and pulled off her shirt before putting on the dress.

She turned to face her reflection, turning this way and that, watching the skirt swish as she moved. It fit her well enough, not too tight around her chest, not too short to be completely obscene. The fabric was soft and it had pockets in the skirt.

“You have good taste,” Byleth called out.

Hilda cheered, “I knew it!”

Byleth pulled off the dress and put her clothes back on before stepping out of the dressing room. “I think I’ll take it,” she said.

Hilda marched to the counter and Byleth trailed behind her. Thinking of her coworkers back home, she picked up some scarves from one of the hanging displays: one red, one blue, and one yellow. While they were more than likely expecting her to bring back tacky island-themed souvenirs, she wanted to be a bit classier than that. There didn’t seem to be a lot of Margaritaville-esque paraphernalia in Nooks and Crannies anyway.

Byleth didn’t bother about asking about the price and simply handed her credit card to Hilda. She was already too deep to really care too much about prices.

“Everything is handmade, huh?” Byleth mused.

The bolts of fabric leaned against the wall behind Marianne were enough indication. Byleth could even match some of the fabric to the clothes that were on display.

“Handmade and made with love,” Hilda chirped. “Right, Marianne?”

Marianne murmured, “Yes, dear.” She didn’t glance up from her work as she sewed a set of buttons into a newly-fashioned coat.

“It’s lovely handiwork,” Byleth said. “I would buy that coat off of you, Marianne, if you weren’t in the middle of making it.”

Marianne blushed at the compliment.

As Hilda wrapped each item with tissue paper, Byleth took another look around the store. It all seemed painstakingly maintained, each piece of clothing either folded in neat piles or on mannequins. If Byleth had just seen a picture of the store’s interior and knowing nothing else, she would have thought it was a store in a bustling city neighboring other high-end boutiques.

“How did you end up over here?” Byleth asked. “I have to ask, since it’s so out of the way. Not exactly a place where I would choose to open a shop.”

For a brief instant, Hilda’s bright face winced before smoothing out to something cheerful again.

“The atmosphere fosters my creative vision and it is as far as possible from Marianne’s garbage family.”

Byleth opened her mouth and promptly shut it, not knowing how to respond to that. This was quite a place to settle, an island in the middle of nowhere. Maybe the couple knew Rhea before moving here or maybe they were friends of Flayn?

“There aren’t as many birds on the island as I would like, but we often visit Duscur and Brigid to sightsee,” Marianne said with a sigh. “It is nice and quiet here, very few people to be a bother.”

Byleth didn’t want to think about what sort of bothers Marianne had been dealing with before coming here.

“Well, with such skill, I would hope that your clientele is not restricted to only the people who live on the island.”

Hilda grinned. “Of course! We have a website and everything, offering standard fare and also bespoke items.” She waved a business card with fancy cardstock and gold foil text in Byleth’s face. “In case you are in need of a party dress or something like that, hit us up.”

Byleth plucked it from her manicured hand before setting it into the shopping bag. “I’ll take a couple, then, to give to my coworkers back in Fhirdiad.”

Hilda’s face immediately lit up, all but throwing a small stack of cards into the bag.

“Oh, thank you! Any publicity is good publicity, after all. We’re saving up to expand our parcel of land, just enough to get a horse.”

“A horse?” Byleth echoed.

“I love to ride,” Marianne said dreamily. “It was one of my comforts, one that I wish to restart.”

Hilda sighed. “It will take a lot, constructing lodgings for it and all of that. It’s something I will definitely have someone else do for us. I wish I could hire the man who helped put up the shelves and counter and stuff, but he died recently.”

Byleth froze. “Oh.”

“I definitely feel bad that I forgot his name,” Hilda continued with a pout. “He hadn’t been around for a while, but Rhea let us know when it happened. Jerry? Gerald?”

“Jeralt,” Byleth interjected, feeling as if the word was less said and more ripped out of her mouth. “Ah—Jeralt was his name.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that you knew him.”

“He’s my dad. He _was_ my dad.”

It was almost comical how Hilda’s eyes widened and how Marianne’s hands plopped onto her lap in shocked silence.

“I know he was into contract work, but didn’t know he was into carpentry,” Byleth said. Her voice roughened, even in her own ears. She wasn’t going to _cry_ , damn it.

“Oh, dear. I really stuck my foot in my mouth, didn’t I?” Hilda said sheepishly.

“No, no. I—it just caught me off guard. I’m glad to see that he made an impression, even after he died.”

Now that she thought about it, there were times when he would come over to her apartment in Fhirdiad just to help with assembling furniture. There had been a long time when Byleth’s apartment was boring and barren until she went to Ikea and bought whatever a functional adult would buy.

When the boxes came, she called Jeralt, asking that he would help, bribing him with beer and pizza. He had been slower than she was used to, the consequences of illness that he hadn’t revealed to her yet. They spent the whole day together, blasting rock music and making fun of the furniture names.

“Well, your mouth is smiling but your eyes are crying. I can’t tell if you’re really fine or not,” Hilda quipped, drawing her out of the memory.

Byleth hadn’t thought about that day in a long time. She really needed to get herself together, since the two women were staring at her like she was moments away from a mental breakdown.

“Just a happy memory is all. Thank you both for assisting me,” Byleth said, taking the shopping bag from where it rested on the counter.

When she smiled at them, it strangely didn’t feel fake or forced.

Marianne waved from her spot at the sewing machine with a small smile of her own. Byleth figured that it was a big deal, if the broad grin from Hilda was any indication.

Byleth sighed as she walked back up that familiar street, a great, shaking thing. It felt like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders, even though her throat hurt and her eyes stung.

She didn't run into anyone, but she knew that she would start crying the moment anyone tried to ask her how she was.

Byleth made it to the house, cried a storm into the flimsy pillow on the crappy cot, and let it all go.

* * *

That following morning, when things were quiet and she was pretty sure nobody was asleep, she went out to the beach and stood right where the sand met the sea.

She really did miss her dad, part of her still missed her mom. She could only hope that they were happy that she had found this place, if it had been their distant hope that she would make her way to Garreg Mach one day.

The picture that now sat on the dresser looked happy and peaceful. It still made her sad that she couldn’t remember, but she supposed it didn’t matter. She had her own memories now.

Wiping a few wayward tears, Byleth trudged back up the beach and made a beeline for the grocer.

The owner looked surprise to see her as she stocked the shelves for the coming day. Perhaps, she wasn't expecting to see someone coming from the beach this early in the morning.

“Ingrid, right” Byleth said.

She nodded. “That’s me. What can I get you?”

Byleth smiled to herself. “Do you guys have donuts?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay feels!!!
> 
> One more chapter and the epilogue to go!
> 
> Comments and kudos are appreciated! 
> 
> [I am also attempting to make my general twitter my writer twitter. Give me a follow there as well!](https://twitter.com/BlooRalts)  
> Cheers!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second to last chapter! Thank you to everyone who has given love to this story so far! It really means a lot to me!
> 
> Enjoy!

Byleth didn’t want to think about the end of her trip any more than necessary. She had to bring it up to Rhea, since she was the one arranging the transport to take her back to Brigid airport, but tried not to mention it to anyone else.

There was no real logical reason why, but Byleth just didn’t want to spoil the fun she was having with the looming deadline. She had given herself two weeks, plenty of time to work on the house, make arrangements, and enjoy herself. There had been no delusion that she would be able to stay there forever, not without the proper arrangements. Besides, Claude would probably send a search party if she ended up staying forever. He was still convinced, despite the happy pictures she sent him, that there was something fishy about the island.

If that truly was the case, she had thoroughly put it out of her mind. Aside from the panic and the mourning, she was beginning to love the island.

Byleth had met just about everyone. She even met Dedue’s wife, Mercedes. She had come over due help tend to Alois, who had twisted his ankle doing something foolish, according to Gilbert. She had a long chat with her as soon as Mercedes was done with her work and she was very warm and kind.

She also properly met the two in charge of the grocer, two best friends—totally not a couple—named Sylvain and Ingrid. They talked about food over a plate of deli samples that Sylvain made just for them. They were from Faerghus and, as it turned out, were classmates with Dimitri during university. The not-couple made sure she knew that they would contact Dimitri to catch up on old times.

The house was looking better. She had cleared most of the front of the yard, so that at least from the street it didn’t look like a complete disaster. She didn't plant much in the way of grass or flowers. She didn’t want everything to die on her in the months between her visiting the island. She would need to get a watering system before she could start planting a garden in earnest.

The day before she was to leave, after a morning of frantically trying to get work done while she could, she stood in the kitchen. She only had so many hours left before she needed to be on that plane, from Garreg Mach to Brigid and from Brigid back to Fhirdiad.

Her phone was full to bursting with pictures and little videos, little snippets of memory that she could revisit whenever she wanted. She scrolled through them, stopping when she came across one that she particularly liked.

It was from when they were fishing. Seteth didn’t know she was taking the picture, so she was able to capture his relaxed smile as he sat under the tree.

Byleth smiled in return, chest feeling tight. While part of what she felt for the man was likely colored by her lingering grief, she knew that she would have been attracted to him even without the cloud of sorrow that followed her. 

Finally, she decided to go visit Seteth at his house. She _liked_ Seteth. While it didn’t seem like there was a lot of competition on the island, she at least wanted to make her intentions clear before she left for months.

Goddess, how did one even do that? They had known each other for two weeks, but she didn't want him to think that she was some ghost that would appear on the island every so often with no intention of putting down some roots.

She wrote her email and phone number on a scrap of paper and tucked it in her pocket. The thought of leaving without having some line of communication open turned her stomach. While she could have asked Rhea, pride stopped her. She had to be an adult and not dance around this issue.

Byleth eyed that pretty blue dress on her cot and shrugged. Might as well wear it, if it gave her a confidence boost.

The breeze made her skirt flap like a flag the moment she stepped out in the afternoon sun and she hissed, glad that she went for the longer skirt that was less likely to show off her underwear if the winds got too strong.

As the days had passed, the main road became more and more familiar to her, as if she had lived there her entire life.

Puffy clouds trailed lazily across the sky, casting their shadows on the hills. The island was giving her all the best sights, to prepare for her goodbye. At least, she liked to think that it was.

Byleth stifled the nervousness that bubbled up as she shut the gate behind her at the front of Seteth and Flayn’s house. There was no real need to be nervous. She could just say her goodbyes and not give voice to the feelings that she had inside. Or, she could be brave and actually say something that she would likely end up regretting.

She rang the doorbell and smoothed out her skirt with a nervous hand. For a long moment, she stood there, tracing the pattern on the welcome mat with her eyes. As the seconds ticked by, fear that she either woke up Flayn or that Seteth was in this office downtown quickly mounted.

The door opened to Seteth, who greeted her with undisguised surprise.

“Miss—Byleth! What brings you here?”

Byleth shuffled from foot to foot. “Well, I was in the neighborhood and thought to drop by. Is this a bad time?”

He immediately shook his head and backed up to hold the door open for her. “No, not at all. Please come in.”

She gave him a quick once-over. He was in his usual white button-up and navy slacks, but he was wearing only a pair of black socks on his feet. This must have been Seteth in his most relaxed state when he wasn't in his fishing gear.

“Thank you,” she murmured, toeing off her shoes and leaving them on the door mat.

Seteth nodded with an apologetic smile. “Forgive me, it’s a bit of a cluttered mess.”

Byleth stepped through the threshold and couldn’t help but marvel a bit at what she saw. It was as if Seteth and Flayn lived in a museum. There were fossils in glass cases and framed art pieces on the walls. She was pretty sure they weren’t real dinosaur bones, but she wasn’t going to ask. The paintings of _Mona Lisa_ and _Starry Night_ were obviously fake. At least, she really hoped they were. Claude would never let her live it down if it turned out if the residents of the island trafficked stolen masterpieces and dinosaur bones.

“Is this what you called cluttered?” Byleth murmured.

She walked further into the house into what she assumed was the living room, Seteth following her.

Everything about the house was put-together. The floors were clean and shiny wood, the walls crisp white with a few light green accent walls scattered between.

“Wow, you have an aquarium?” she exclaimed, picking up the pace to press her face close to the glass.

It was less of an aquarium and more like a swimming pool raised off of the ground. Colorful fish of all shapes swam around in the clear water. It put all of the aquariums she had ever seen at the dentist’s office to shame.

“It’s a freshwater aquarium. We have a saltwater one in the atrium.”

Byleth mouthed the word ‘atrium’ as she watched a guppy swim along. She didn’t even know what an atrium was, but it sounded fancy.

“I’m impressed. You’ve put a lot of work into the house.”

“Yes. I—ah, I feel like I have a particular skill with this sort of thing.”

As he said it, Byleth could tell that he was underselling himself. If she pressed, he would probably admit that he built the house himself.

“Makes my house look like a rundown shack,” she muttered.

“It doesn’t have to be. I understand that it’s currently a one-room house. We can expand it, give it more rooms, even a second floor. Change out the wallpaper and flooring and with some interior decorating, it could be beautiful.”

She turned to see that Seteth had been standing just behind her, too close and not close enough. His eyes widened as she looked up at him, like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

“Would you like to go for a walk with me?” Byleth asked, finding the one and only thing to diffuse the sudden tension.

Seteth looked visibly relieved.

“Of course.”

* * *

He offered his arm the moment they stepped onto his front porch.

Byleth’s eyes widened as her eyes cut between his elbow and his face before she rested her hand on the crook of his arm. It felt painfully intimate.

They walked back up the road and passed by her house. From the street, she could tell that there was some improvement and that made pride balloon a little in her chest. The work wasn’t done, but it was a start.

“It looks good,” Seteth murmured.

Beyond her house were large, empty fields, up to the crest of a hill. They stopped there, taking in the view as the wind blew around them.

“I understand you will be leaving tomorrow,” Seteth said after a silence.

Byleth's shoulders drooped a little, though his words weren’t accusatory, just a sad statement of fact. “How did you know?”

He sighed. “Rhea asked me to arrange a list of necessary supplies for Gilbert to bring back to the island after he dropped you off.”

She raised a brow at that. “Oh, really? She has you deal with that stuff too?”

Byleth looked up to see Seteth smile to himself. “Well, I won’t bore you with the specifics of my position regarding island maintenance. Needless to say, it is extensive.”

She could already imagine the logistics of it all making her head spin. “Perhaps another time.”

“Another time,” Seteth echoed.

Byleth nudged him gently. “Of course. I’m not leaving forever.”

“You don’t think you could be persuaded to stay a bit longer?”

The soft, earnest expression in his eyes almost made her melt, almost made her send off a message to Rhea to report a change of plans. What is a canceled plane ticket? What is potential unemployment?

Logic won out, to her chagrin. “My boss wouldn’t like it too much. If I’m gone for a day longer, he’s gonna have a hernia from all the stress of my being gone.”

He looked at her with a faintly sour expression like he would prefer her boss have a hernia if it meant that she stayed.

“I will be back, Seteth. I promise,” she reassured with a smile. “I can’t let the weeds take over my yard again and I still need to reclaim that oarfish.”

The joke fell flat as she felt herself flail, wanting to say too much and nothing at all. Rather than deciding, she looked out towards the ocean, feeling Seteth’s gaze on her.

In the distance, she could see Dedue’s boat, bobbing gently in the distance, away from the island. He was returning to Duscur for the day, to his family back home.

He would be back, just as she would be. She envied him, that he lived so close and could come over whenever he pleased. Byleth had logistics and leave time and plane tickets to traverse every time she ever visited.

“This really is a nice place," she mused. "I’m glad I came here, making the best out of a poor situation.”

Byleth turned to see that Seteth was staring at her, not at the view. Heat crawled over her face, flustered at being watched.

Before she could convince herself out of it, she bounced on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his cheek. A tiny gasp escaped Seteth’s mouth and she had to resist the urge to kiss him there as well.

As she pulled away, she tucked the piece of paper into his pocket. He quickly retrieved it and held it out in askance.

Byleth shrugged, but the motion felt jerky and nervous as words bubbled up and over. “It’s so we can stay in touch. I don’t know when I will be back, but I don’t want you to forget about me in the meantime.”

He shook his head almost immediately. “I won’t forget you.”

Byleth’s chest shuddered as she inhaled. “Good. That’s good.”

There was a long pause and for a moment she wasn’t sure if she was going to kiss him full on the mouth or jump his bones. Seteth instead reached for the phone in his pocket, wide-eyed and eager.

“Let me take a picture of you, right here.”

She couldn’t help but blush a little at the request.

“Of course.”

Seteth gestured for her to turn so her back was to the ocean and Dedue’s little boat.

Suddenly, she didn’t know what to do with her hands. In lieu of doing something corny like making a peace-sign, she clasped them behind her back and smiled.

Seteth looked like he was intensely concentrating at his phone screen as he tapped on it, taking what she assumed was a bunch of pictures.

“Okay,” he murmured as he squinted at his phone.

Byleth watched as his fingers danced over his phone before he turned the screen for her to see.

This was clearly the perfect one. The wind had caught her hair at the perfect moment. The lighting didn’t make her look washed out and her eyes weren’t closed or half-blinking. Her smile was so soft and genuine and she realized that it wasn’t because she had been conscious of having her picture taken, but because she was looking at the person taking the picture.

She actually looked happy. What a wonderful thing to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and kudos are appreciated! 
> 
> [I am also attempting to make my general twitter my writer twitter. Give me a follow there as well!](https://twitter.com/BlooRalts)  
> Cheers!


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